Meeting Anna
by magewriter
Summary: Kratos meets Anna under peculiar circumstances, and over a long period of time he falls in love. Then comes Lloyd, the jealousy of Mithos, and the story unfolds. Spoilers!
1. Introduction

Meeting Anna

By Magewriter

…So, I've written stuff about Mithos and that time period, but one day I was drawing some doodles of hypothetical Anna, and I was thinking: Kratos wouldn't fall for some delicate little flower. He'd fall in love with someone who, even after two thousand years, was worth his time. Hence, Anna has to be a strong character, probably in the fighting party before Lloyd was too big (pregnancy would definitely hinder fighting abilities). In my doodles, she has this awesome dress. I might post it on DeviantART if I feel like going to all the trouble to make a human figure on MS Paint without an official reference pic. I'll need to work on her hair first though, because at this point she doesn't have bangs, just a long ponytail with an awesome ribbon or two buns with less awesome ribbons. (For those of you interested in my comics and pictures, they're at sheelos-lover. for the scene: It's almost two thousand years after the great war ended. Mana depletion is beginning to become an issue in Sylvarant and Tethe'alla is beginning to realize the wealth of mana they have. Scientists, not just mages, are beginning to use mana in their work. Mana is being refined in vast quantities. Recently, there have been studies on how exspheres affect the human body (in a few years, these experiments will happen to Presea).

It was a beautiful, clear day of the type that fascinates small children. However, Kratos had seen tens of thousands of such days and they were no longer special to him. He was planning the next oracle. The Chosen of Sylvarant had been located and was soon to be sent on her journey. The Chosen of Tethe'alla was leading a love-deprived life, but Kratos could care less, especially since Zelos didn't know that yet. Sylvarant was coming to the last of its mana. Never in two thousand years had the Cycle of Mana strayed so far from its normal course. If this Chosen failed, Kratos would be assisting the next chosen personally.

As it was, Kratos was already preparing for the next Chosen. Whether or not this Chosen succeeded, she would die and another Chosen of Sylvarant would be conceived within the next two years. All of the details consumed even Kratos' mind so deeply that he had to write them down.

After awhile, his mind got tired from thinking of every little detail, so he walked through the forest into the clearing in which he practiced swordplay.

Swordplay was a kind of meditation for him. He would focus his mind on something while his body did the familiar moves which he had used for two thousand years. He thought of the world he had grown up in, of the innocence of his childhood and his life in Iselia. Of his girlfriend, dead almost two thousand years, who had been so impersonal when he returned.

(See my other ToS fanfic)

Because he was unconscious of the world around him, he didn't notice the woman standing at the edge of the clearing until the wooden ball hit him on the head. Suddenly brought back to consciousness, he swung his sword behind him.

"Aw, you're no fun. You severed my string!" He heard the woman's voice, then managed to find her figure, sitting on a tree branch in a dress, stockings, and Sylvarantian boots. Her hair was twisted into buns on either side of her head, and although she sounded cross, her face was laughing.

Kratos did the only logical thing he could: He picked up her stupid wooden ball and chucked it at her. Somehow, she managed to catch it.

"Nice arm. If you want to play catch, I can come down. There's no reason to be rude."

Now Kratos saw that in her hand was a purple string, probably wool, with a loop on one end.

"And, when we're done, you're going to escort me back to my village. Now that you've broken my weapon, you have to take responsibility for my protection. It's an unwritten rule of a sort."

"Do you know who I am?"

"No, but I wouldn't mind finding out. Be happy I'm not making you pay for a new one!"

"It's a ball with a string on it. It costs about two gald."

"Actually, the reason I'm not charging you for it is that I made it myself. I carve wood professionally, see, and I was test-driving the stringball as a weapon. Basically, I throw it or sling it at something, but I don't have to chase after it for five minutes because I've got the string."

"It's basic. People have been throwing things at each other for thousands of years."

"Yeah, but this is the first time that they've expressed the want to get their stuff back after they throw it away."

"You've obviously never heard of boomerangs." He started to walk away.

"Exactly where do you think you're going?"

He stopped. "To that tower over there."

"My village is that way."

"If you failed to judge my reflexes correctly, that's your fault, not mine. Now, get away from me."

"I played a small joke. My punishment shouldn't be death or serious injury by monsters!"

"Do you know who I am?"

"You're the man who comes to the pretty clearing every so often to meditate while you fence."

"I am Kratos of the Four Seraphim!"

"I don't care. You cut my weapon in two. If I'd been fighting you, I wouldn't be so mad. But I just bonked you on the head. Lightly! My village isn't that far away, anyway. It's just over that hill!"

"Do you know who the Four Seraphim are?"

"Why? Should I?"

"We are the elite fighting force of Martel."

"Then you should have no problem battling one little monster or two. Or are you afraid to walk over a little hill?"

"I should cut you in two!"

"Yes, but see, that's the great thing about unwritten rules: everyone knows that you're not supposed to hit an unarmed opponent! If I had my stringball intact, I would have no problem with you trying, even though it seems like awfully harsh punishment for tapping you on the head through all that hair. But, I don't have it. So, it would be extremely rude of you to even touch me with that sword!"

"You're never going to shut up, are you?"

"Not until you give in, no."

"Then, I guess I only have one choice."

"Finally! Thank you! What's your name again? Kralos? Thank you, Kralos!

"My name is Kratos."

"Kratos, right! Thanks!"

She stopped talking after that, in the literal sense of the word. But she hummed. It turned out that she lived in Hima. When they got to the bottom of the path that led up the mountain, she invited him into the village. He turned it down, saying that he should work on the plans he was going through before he went out to the clearing. She grabbed his arm to drag him, but he twisted his limb and drew his sword. She paused for a second, taken aback, but then she smiled and ran up the path. He turned and left, but heard her yell "Thank you, Kratos!" from near the village.

.-..-..-.

Back in the Tower of Salvation, Kratos went through boring possibilities, each almost identical and most ending with the Chosen dead. Sylvarant was weak; it had no central government and couldn't protect the Chosen because there were no soldiers. Even if the Chosen did survive, there was a chance that she wouldn't be able to receive Martel's soul, and she might still die. That would be a disaster.

Still, things had been going according to plan for two thousand years; they ought to go fine now.

.-..-..-.

Finally, the Ceremony of the Oracle. The Tower of Salvation appeared as more than just a small brick tower in Sylvarant.

This left more time for swordplay, Kratos' only true joy after two thousand years of having a 28-year-old body.

Or, so he thought.

One day, the Chosen of Sylvarant died. She was weak, though: her party had died fighting the Fire guardian. It was the weakest of the guardians.

They would have to wait up to twenty years for another Chosen to be ready.

So, to relax, he went to the clearing to meditate. On his way there, he heard singing. Folk songs that everyone knew, but the voice was beautiful.

As he neared the clearing, the singing stopped, and he heard the woman from before telling herself a story. Was she crazy or something? Then, inexplicably, she burst into song again. She had a wonderful voice. Loud, but nice.

He threw a stick at her. She caught it.

"If you don't like my singing, you can say so."

"Were you… talking to yourself just then?"

"Yeah. I do that sometimes. I like to tell stories, but there isn't always someone who wants to listen, so I talk to the air. Or at night, I'll tell myself the stuff that's been going on, or I'll make up a story or something, and that helps me go to sleep."

"You're crazy."

"Better crazy than fickle."

"I'm not fickle!"

"Sure you're not! And I'm not from Luin."

"Do you remember who I am?"

"You're Kratos of the Four Seraphim, the elite warriors of the Goddess Martel. Kralos is still a prettier name, though."

"I don't care!"

"I improved my stringball. I can't call it that anymore, though. Now I call it a chainsphere. 'Ball' doesn't sound as good with 'chain' as 'sphere' does, so it's a chainsphere. I have a metal ball, and I welded a chain to it. Then I've got this hoop here that I put the chain through, and I hold onto that. The ball isn't solid, though. I practice with it every day, so I'm getting a lot stronger, especially my right arm, but I practice with my left arm too, so I can use that if I need to."

"Are you suggesting that we duel?"

"No, I'm sure you're a lot stronger than me. I'm just a beginner, after all!"

So, somewhere in that stupid head, there was intelligent thought. That was very interesting.

"Would you teach me some things?"

"Sorry. I don't teach."

"But you're so good with your sword! I want to learn! I really do! Do you know any magic?"

"You're too impatient to learn magic."

"Actually, I can concentrate really hard on stuff when I want to! Please, will you teach me magic?"

"Make it worth my while."

"I promise, I will! I don't know you well enough to know what you want, but I promise, I will make it worth your while!"

"Do you know meditation?"

"Yeah."

"Meditate on your mana."

Just a couple of minutes in, she started to glow. It was the power of her mana. Then she opened her eyes.

"I'm bored! I've been sitting here for half an hour! Can I get up and stretch?"

"You had just focused your mana!" Despite the circumstances, Kratos found it relatively funny.

So, Anna got up, stretched, complained about how her knee hurt when she straightened it, (she'd been sitting cross-legged) then sat down again.

"For real now." This time, she started to glow in only a few seconds. Soon, the mist of mana-light became a clear magic circle on the ground, with all of the colors combined to make white. So Anna was a healer. It actually wasn't that much of a surprise. She was lively and energetic, and although she was annoying, Kratos couldn't imagine her actually doing anything mean.

When she opened her eyes, she complained again. "I'm exhausted! When do I learn the real stuff?"

"Meet me here tomorrow morning. Now that you can create a magic circle, we have to refine it, then you can learn magic."

"Why do I get the feeling that this is going to take months?"

"Because you don't realize that it took me months to develop even a slight glow of mana."

"Really? So, I'm doing well?"

"Yes, as much as I hate to admit it."

"Yay! I'll see you tomorrow, okay?"

"Wait. First, can I see your little whatchamacallit?"

"My chainsphere? Sure!" She threw it at a nearby tree and yanked it back. She did this several times, chipping off some of the bark. It wasn't a very powerful attack. Then she stepped back and slung it, using centrifugal force to hurl the ball at the side of the tree trunk. It made a dent in the solid oak, demonstrating power which would seriously injure a human.

"That's why I want to learn magic: all I can do with this thing is hurt stuff. I want to be able to heal things, too."

It was the most poetic, heroic, and sensible thing that Kratos had heard in all his 2,000 years. Apparently, Anna saw the surprise on his face.

"I'm more than just this, you know. I do have a deeper part of me. I just choose to be carefree because it's more fun. It's no fun being serious all the time. I have to work at that. But being happy is my natural state. All my friends say that, when they're sad, I make them feel better. But, I'd better get going. I have to do stuff before tonight! It's a day of mourning tomorrow, so a lot of people are going on pilgrimages. We have to be ready. I mean, there aren't really any other towns or inns or anything in the area, except that old, run-down Desian base. That thing went out of operations fifty years ago!"

"Sixty-three."

"Sixty-three! You would've thought someone would – Hey, wait a second. How did you know that?"

"I like history. It doesn't change."

"I think it does. If you think about it, all the history books are written by men. You never hear about the peace that came after the Great War – it goes all the way up 'till now, with only revolts and Desians, not real wars! But, you never think about the huge advances, just the revolts and wars and negative things, because people like excitement! That's what makes me mad, is that all you ever hear about is 'there were two hundred years of relative peace before the Desian Revolution.' And yet, when you come to the Desian Revolution, there's a detailed analysis of every little strategy and tactic used in every single battle, and there are all of the names of the people who were credited with winning the battles, when it was really the soldiers, and winning a battle only means killing more people than your enemy and not surrendering!"

"Do you always go off on random monologues?"

"Not always. Just when I have something that I can't express with a few words."

"The thing about war is, people remember it. You always remember the people you've killed, but you don't always remember the inventor of the type of machine or system or whatever you're using."

"Exactly! See, that's what ticks me off! People kill people, meaninglessly, and then they brag about it! But then, when you're using a pen, there's no book that says which person or village or area or country started to use feathers instead of brushes to write with!"

"That's because it's impossible to forget the people you've killed."

"Yeah! That's what I'm saying! It's stupid to kill people, but then no one ever talks about the smart stuff that people've done."

"Forget it. You don't understand."

"I think, in a way, I do. Because, I come to this forest a lot. And, I always encounter monsters. And when I can't run away, I have to kill them. And, I don't want to, but I'm afraid. And, I hate doing it because I shouldn't have to kill them."

"Sometimes you have to. It's just the way things are."

"But it shouldn't be!"

"I never said that it was right or justified, but it's a fact. Do you want me to escort you home again?"

"No. People might say we're going out. And, if tomorrow's a day of morning for the Chosen, the Church of Martel must be in a huge uproar."

"Not really. Other Chosens have died. It's the people of Sylvarant who see such huge significance in this. In a little under twenty years, there will be another Chosen. I'm thinking that that one ought to succeed. I might travel with her."

"How do you know it's going to be a girl?"

"It has to do with the process. It's extremely complex."

"Oh."

"Shouldn't you leave?"

"Oh! Yeah! Thanks for reminding me!"

As she left, Kratos realized something: he was beginning to become attracted to her. However, he was relatively sure that it wouldn't be significant because the first thought that came into his head after this realization was "Ew."

Realizing that he was acting like a teenager and rationalizing it by telling himself that he was spending too much time with Anna, Kratos did simple moves with his sword, which, after five hundred years, could only be considered a part of him. When he helped the next Chosen, it would be hard switching swords. He would have to start out with something extremely basic, like steel or iron, to trick her party into thinking he was a normal human. It would have to be of much clumsier construction than his current model. The sword he had now was perfectly balanced and attuned to his grip. He could do anything with it.

He had to admit that he felt differently from Anna on the issue of monsters. Monsters didn't stop to assess the dangers of battles, and they were easily killed. Humans, on the other hand (or half-elves or elves) made a careful assessment of their opponent and, while they might sometimes be overconfident or misjudge their opponent, they didn't just fling themselves into battle without reason.

It seemed like a waste, however, that such an intelligent woman's mind be wasted doing repetitive tasks every day. She was powerful, too. Anyone who could create a healing circle (almost as good as Kratos's, but he didn't tell her because he didn't want her to get overconfident) over the matter of a few minutes in only two tries harbored intense power.

The next day, she didn't come. Kratos didn't expect her to. But, to teach her to be consistent, he went to Hima.

"Kratos!" Why are you here! Are you going on a pilgrimage? …No, that wouldn't make sense. What are you doing here?"

The apron she wore as an inn girl was slightly askew, and she was wearing a more traditional dress, and her hair was in two braids under a white head scarf, but she was still the same, annoyingly cheerful Anna.

"I'm here to teach you the importance of consistency. If you could set aside a few minutes sometime, I would be extremely grateful. If not, you'll be doing magic directly after your shift ends."

"Ugh. Sometimes, it feels like my shift never ends. As an inn girl, I get time off most days, especially during festivals when everyone's at their house, but not tonight. Will you come with me? I'm really busy!"

So, Kratos followed her as she went upstairs, made beds that might not be slept in for hours if the noise level downstairs was any indication. Sure, it was a day of mourning, (note that the word "was" is past-tense) but it was night now.

As Anna tidied up a room, shoving all the luggage onto the bed to more efficiently clean the floor, then making the bed and giving it a good -_whap_- to get all the wrinkles out. Then she put the luggage back on the floor and went on to the next room, all the time conversing with Kratos about random subjects, such as her pet peeves that inngoers tended to do, (usually having to do with placement of objects or wording, or making it unclear whether they were leaving tips or not) the way she was treated as an inn girl, and then they had a long discussion about magic, specifically healing magic.

Then, they went downstairs, where Anna worked as a waitress. That would account for her good short-term memory. Rather than walk back and forth behind Anna as though he were her sweetheart, Kratos gave Anna a few gald for a mug of beer and went to the corner, where he sat calmly, watching her, also to see how she was treated by her customers. It was strange: whenever Anna looked distressed, he felt the urge to walk over and give the person worrying her a vague threat. However, he managed to ignore these urges by reminding himself that she had taken that sort of thing before and was probably only fatigued by an entire day of work.

When about half of the guests were in their rooms, the woman who was obviously in charge of the inn girls talked to Anna, who then went to sit down next to Kratos with two plates of food.

"This one's for you. My shift's finally over. I guess, after I finish this, I have to work on my magic, huh?"

"Nnh."

"Huh?"

"Don't trouble yourself. What can I say of myself as a teacher if I let my student work herself to death?"

"What?!"

"I said, you deserve not to be forced to study magical arts after working so hard tonight."

"Really?! Thank you! I promise you, after all this madness is over, I'll work really hard!"

"Don't worry too hard."

"Okay!" They ate in silence for a minute, but the excitement of the evening had passed into Anna and she couldn't stay quiet for too long.

"So, do you like it here? Ooh! You have to watch the sunrise here! If you stay overnight, I'll show you! I have to get up early to help cook in the morning, so it wouldn't be hard to wake you up!"

"I honestly couldn't care less."

"But it's so pretty! All of it! Even when the sky's turned completely blue, it's still beautiful! …Because, the world is beautiful. Have you ever just looked up at the sky and thought about nothing?"

"Yeah. A long time ago. When I was a kid. Then I got over it. It's blue."

"I know! It's better than grey, at least! Whenever it gets cloudy and grey and depressing, I start wearing all these bright colors. I just can't stand when things are boring! So, I do my best to make things happy and fun again! Where'd you get the fabric your clothes are made from, by the way? I've never seen anything quite like it. All the thread and the weaving are so even. I wish I could do that!"

"It's from a city that doesn't exist anymore. It's just a little town now."

"Oh. I guess the Church of Martel has all sorts of crazy connections. What town is it?"

"Iselia."

"Iselia?! That's where I'm from!" He nearly choked on his beer, but managed to contain the jolt he got to something easily excusable by the phrase "I swallowed wrong."

"What's it like there now? Last time I went, it was tiny and there was a Desian establishment nearby."

"Yeah! …And there's this dwarf, Dirk, who lives just on the other side of the forest, and he makes all kinds of nice stuff. Actually, I heard the statue in that House of Salvation near the Thoda Geyser? Their Statue of Spiritua broke, and Dirk made them another one! He's amazing!"

"Dwarves' powers are weakened when they come to the surface."

"Even so, he's still a way better craftsman than any humans I know."

"That tends to be true, yes."

There was silence for the next few seconds.

"Have you ever been to Palmacosta?"

"Of course."

"What's it like there? I hear they have a huge university where all the serious scholars go to learn. And they have this theatrical group that does all these famous shows. I want to be in that so badly! But, I also heard the Desians are starting to take people from the city. What does the Church of Martel do about Desians?"

"It's highly confidential."

There was a second or two as Anna processed those words, then a highly disgusted "ew." Then, she probably felt hungry because she ate her dinner.

As she went to bed, she said goodnight to everyone who was still up. Kratos, thinking of nothing better to do, curled up in a corner on the floor and went to sleep.

.-..-..-.

The next morning, he was woken up before dawn by Anna shaking him and telling him to wake up. Reluctantly, he followed her up a dirt path to a flat area on top of the mountain. It wasn't big enough to be called a mesa.

Anna just stood there, transfixed on the pearly light coming from behind the mountains. In the cold, clear air, sitting next to Anna, watching the sun come up over the mountains, Kratos was truly, genuinely happy for the first time in nearly 2,000 years.

Kratos became so lost in his own thoughts that he didn't notice when Anna sat down next to him and put her arms around him. But, when the streaky clouds were neon pink, shaded in blue-gray, and the horizon was orange so bright, the sun had to be coming in less than a minute, Anna shook him to full consciousness. "Isn't it beautiful?" She asked.

And that was the only sound they made, and the only human sound they listened to, until the sun was up and the sky was blue. At that point, the sun was in their direct line of vision, so they decided to go back into the inn.

Inside, the light that to normal vision seemed comfortable and unobtrusive felt dark and shadowy to Kratos, so he went outside to practice his sword fighting. Anna tried, once again, to sneak up on him, but it didn't work because he was on higher ground than her and the land was just desert-type, sandy orange-brown earth.

Kratos sheathed his sword as he saw Anna approach. "What do you want?"

"Well, now that the pilgrimage rush is over, I have some time. Not much, because it's still the second day after the Chosen died, but I ought to have about ten minutes."

"Good. Hurt me."

"What?!"

"Hurt me. Use that chain-ball-thingy, sling it at me, and then restore me to full health."

"I can't do that! I don't even know how to heal!"

"I have full confidence that it is fully within your abilities. And even if I am completely off in my calculations, I know healing arts and I have an apple gel in my pocket."

"Um… Okay. If you way so…" She hurled her chainball in a half-circle, injuring his arm heavily.

"Now, heal me," he managed to say through teeth clenched from the pain.

Anna made a healing circle on the ground with her magic, sustained it for almost a full minute, and yelled, "First Aid!"

Kratos was healed.

"That is the extent of your training."

"What?! You mean, I hurt you and then I heal you and then you just say, 'okay, it's over'?!"

"Well… yeah. You said you wanted to learn to heal. That's the healing art."

"But… Will you teach me more magic then?"

"Of course. You'll have to work at it, though. You're not naturally an elemental mage."

"I can try!"

"You can, and I'm relatively certain you will."

…Okay, so that's it for Chapter 1. It's not overly romantic, but then, neither is Kratos. Not yet, anyway.

Anna turned out to be a lot like me: enthusiastic, cheerful, and yet with flashes of philosophical-ness that are surprising. But, to me, they're not really all that surprising because she's an extension. Towards the end (the second night I was working on this – it was written over a night, a morning, and another night) I started getting really descriptive. I have no idea why.

My theory on magic is that it exists inside of you, whether you find it or not, and there's a type of magic that you naturally have, which helps to determine your personality. Anna is a healer (because I feel like it) so she naturally has healing magic.

Please comment. Even if you have something negative to say (especially if you have something negative to say) I want to hear it. Otherwise, I won't know how to improve my story!


	2. Elemental Magic?

Meeting Anna

By Magewriter

Chapter 2: Elemental Magic?

I have a unique style of writing: I write my story, then I look up and make an exclamation like "Whoa! I have four pages already?!" The last chapter had inconsistencies and stuff, but I decided I'd take care of that later. As this is all saved in the same slot, I'll change it at the end. For those who found the main inconsistency: Anna lived in Iselia, not Luin, as a young girl. For people who found the almost-plothole in the story, in my version Kratos didn't meet Anna in the Iselia Ranch. She is in Luin when she is abducted, she is equipped with an exsphere, and Kratos has her transferred to the Iselia ranch so that Dirk can (hopefully) give her a Key Crest. Who came up with the names of these items, anyway?

Disclaimer (so that I don't forget to write it in later): I don't own anything by Namco. This includes Kratos, Anna, place names, and Tales of Symphonia in general.

The flow of guests to the Hima inn had slowed since the third day after the Chosen died. Anna had greatly improved her healing circle (her record was fifteen seconds), but she was having trouble with elemental magic. So much trouble, in fact, that she would get frustrated, start crying, give up, and go down the mountain to sit by herself. When Kratos tried to approach her, she would yell at him to go away because she didn't want to cry and she didn't feel like crying, but she couldn't control it and she didn't want to talk to him and her stomach hurt and why didn't he get it?!

The whole thing was very confusing to Kratos.

When he had met Anna, she was a sweet girl with a good personality who was relatively stubborn. How could she change so much over the course of a few days?

On the sixth day Kratos worked with her, she was back to normal. She seemed to be better at concentrating and she didn't get mad at him the way she had before. He wondered what had happened to make her so different for those five days.

When he asked her, she gave him a vague answer. Their two discussions went about like this:

"Well, you know how I'm a girl?"

"I would think that that was obvious."

"Well, see, girls are different."

"Obviously."

"And, as a girl, I have certain feminine issues…"

"Huh?"

"Oh, forget it!"

Then she would say something about how stupid men are.

The interesting thing about Anna was that, as a healing mage, she was one of the best students that anyone could hope to have and she had mastered even advanced techniques. But, as an elemental mage, she was completely hopeless.

One day, she got an idea: she would go to Asgard and pray to Martel from inside one of the caves. Being close to the earth would hopefully help her with her earth-elemental abilities. If that worked, she would go to Luin and pray again. Luin had a lake surrounding it, and she didn't mind getting her clothes wet.

So, after Anna had gotten permission, they set off for Asgard. After Anna had made her prayer, an orange magic circle surrounded her. She filled a pouch with loose dirt from the bottom of the cave, then they proceeded to Luin.

Her prayer in Luin was different. She took off her shoes and sat with her feet in the water. She made a relatively similar prayer and a blue magic circle appeared on the water around her feet. She took a jar of the water and they went back to Hima. In the morning, she wanted to head for Triet, where she would try to capture the element of fire. She didn't know how she would manage that.

As they went on their journey, Kratos came to the unmistakable realization that he was in love. He found himself looking at Anna and talking to her for no reason. She was a puzzle to him, but that may have been why he was so fascinated by her.

He would never let her know this.

So, they went to Triet. She prayed from the stone in front of the temple (conveniently replaced by Yuan only days before) and an orange magic circle (this one distinctly less grounded and much hotter than the Earth circle) appeared around her. Then they went back to Hima and Kratos went to the Tower of Salvation, which once again appeared as a big hole in the ground to all who lived in Sylvarant. Kratos didn't live in Sylvarant, so he could see it perfectly.

That night, he was summoned to see Mithos. It didn't bode well.

.-..-..-.

He chose to fly through the center of the stairwell instead of walking up seven million flights of stairs (In actuality, it was really only 5,067,381 steps, but this was still extremely tiring) to get to Mithos' room. When he got there, he knocked (only as a matter of form, and a voice (Mithos was a child today) yelled, "If you're not Kratos, drop dead!"

"What if I am Kratos?"

"I want to talk to you."

So, Kratos opened the door and walked inside.

"You've been spending time with a human."

"I am forever spending time with a human. All these two thousand years, I have been my constant companion."

"You know what I mean!"

"Yes, I do."

"Why?"

"Because she's interesting. She's completely different from you or me. It isn't something I can easily explain."

"You like her, you mean."

"Why else would I spend time with her?"

"No, I mean you like her like her."

"I'm still trying to figure that out."

"…Which, coming from you, means yes."

"In your mind, I'm sure it does."

"What do you mean, 'in my mind'?! How are we so different?"

"We've had extremely different experiences."

"You mean, you're more mature than me."

"In a sense, I think that Yuan is the most mature of us all."

"Darn you, Kratos! Why can't you ever say what you mean?"

"Because I've gotten good at it these last two thousand years. It's an art."

"You want to mess with me?"

"No. I just felt uncomfortable answering your questions. Having been your friend for two thousand years, I hope that you can forgive me a short period of confusion in my life."

"Heh. You're so weird, Kratos. You can leave whenever you want. Or, you can stay and we can talk about stuff. I don't care."

"I think I'll go see Yuan."

"Okay. Bye, Kratos!"

"Goodbye, Mithos."

So, flew back down the stairs and headed to the Renegade base.

.-..-..-.

"Who is it?"

"Kratos."

"Oh. Come in, Kratos."

"I have a question."

"Okay."

"Could you get these Desians to leave?"

"Oh. Of course." He turned to his personal attendants. "I don't require your services at the moment."

"Yes, sir!" …And they left.

"So, what's your question? It must be something personal."

"Stop acting your physical age and listen."

"Okay. I'm listening."

"There's something I wanted to ask you that's…" Kratos had been creeping toward the door. To be entirely sure that the conversation wasn't being heard, he now opened the door. He didn't see anything, but he heard two people running away.

"I'll deal with that later," Yuan said. "What did you want to ask?"

"What did you feel when you were with Martel?"

"What?"

"What did it feel like? Were you confused? Did you ever understand what she thought? What was it like?"

"Kratos… Are you…?"

"Yes. And I can't remember the feeling at all from two thousand years ago."

"Well, Martel was… interesting. But what are you coming to me for?"

"Martel was the most perplexing woman ever to walk the earth before Anna."

"I see. Well, you remember her, don't you? The shiny green hair, the laugh, the happy smile… I don't think you ever saw the loving smile, but she had one. And when she cried, it broke my heart."

(To understand the rest of the conversation, read Chapter 4 of Sacrifice for the World, my other ToS fanfic)

"I remember that much. And staying up late with her because she became an insomniac."

"And I remember you could always get her to eat. You just glared at her."

"You were always too soft on her."

"Remember the day after you made the pact with Origin? You were violently sick the night before, so we made you a sleeping draft, but it had tomatoes in it so you only drank most of it, then Martel had the rest and she slept in until noon. And when Mithos went to wake her up she hit him, and she sent me away, but you pulled her up by her hair."

"Good times, Yuan, good times."

"Then there was that time in the Elven village, with the toxicosis…"

"You mean, when you lay down next to her? You know I knew you better than that, right?"

"Yeah."

"Mithos, though… Remember the first time he went, and he gave us all exspheres?"

"You were scary that morning!"

"Well, I was angry."

"Back to Martel, though… She was sweet. She was… She was the best thing that ever happened to me. There's only one woman like that in a lifetime, even in a lifetime like ours. I say, if you're in love with this woman – Anna, right? – then go for it. When she dies, I should warn you, you'll lose everything, but I think that it's better to have been in love and lose it than to never fall in love and live in meaningless existence for the next several thousand years."

"There's only one problem though."

"And that is…?"

"She is the most annoying woman in the history of the universe. She's outlandish in all sorts of ways, she never listens to me, and she does everything according to what she wants."

"So did Martel. She just happened to have similar goals to ours."

"She was relatively obedient though."

"No. Remember when she stopped talking to Mithos? Everything she did, she did because she wanted to. We just happened to support her. She was compassionate and flexible enough that our goals all became similar. But, if you think about the things that she said, she was extremely stubborn. Remember when we met, and she referred to you as 'monster' for the next five days?"

"I guess. It seemed like she was more insistent with Mithos than with us."

"Well, he was her younger brother by ten years. She was used to dominating him."

"…"

"I think that's why she got so depressed: she had always known him as a sweet little kid, but then when he got all haughty, he just about forgot about us. We'd both known him for a few days, so we couldn't care less, but Martel was so attached to him."

"Did Martel ever annoy you nearly to the point of insanity?"

"I think that, if she had wanted to, she could have. Maybe if I'd known her longer or she hadn't had such a huge crush on me. Did you notice that? Whenever I did anything romantic to her, she'd get that look on her face, and if she was standing up, she'd sit down. It was… well, frankly, it was strange."

"It was her way of having a crush."

"I guess you could put it that way. But with Anna, I'd suggest that you just wait. Put up with her for awhile and see if anything happens."

"I can't put up with her."

"Just try. Come to me if you need advice."

"Okay. Thanks, Yuan."

"Anytime."

Kratos left then. He returned to Hima. When he came back, Anna was outside purchasing food from the man who sold just about everything from his little stand next to the inn.

"Hi, Kratos! It's almost lunchtime! You want to stay here for awhile?"

Sigh. "Why not?"

"I still have some stuff to do before I have lunch, so I might not be joining you until you're almost done. This one guy checked out really late, so I have to clean his room now."

"I can wait…"

"No! You can't not eat because of me!"

"Having seen you clean rooms, I happen to know that you can do it extremely quickly. I'll be fine."

When you don't need food, why should you care whether or not you eat at the normal time?

"Where were you today?"

"I went to see an old friend of mine."

"Oh! Were they one of the Four Seraphim?"

"Yes, actually. His name is Yuan. He's a half-elf."

"Oh." There was a pause. "Why are you friends with a half-elf?"

"Do you have a problem with that?"

"No. I'm just wondering. There's this huge stereotype of half-elves nowadays because Desians are all half-elves, but people don't seem to realize that not all half-elves are Desians."

"I knew him before that stereotype."

"No you didn't."

"How do you know?"

"Well, looking at you, I'd say that you weren't more than thirty years old, and Desians have been around for almost two thousand years, and that stereotype's been around almost as long as there have been Desians."

"Well, the Four Seraphim are… different."

"Well, that may be, but no one lives for two thousand years!"

"…"

"Right?"

"Come and see me in the forest tomorrow."

"Huh? Kratos, why are you acting so weird?"

"You'll see."

Sigh. "Okay. I have to take this stuff inside."

So she did, running a happy, bouncy run. "Hey, I got the stuff!"

He heard the short discussion between her and the other girl on the inn staff, then her footsteps as she ran up the stairs two at a time. He followed at a much calmer pace, but was stopped by the inn girl.

"Hey, what's up with you and Anna?"

"What do you mean?"

"You two've been spending a lot of time in the forest… alone…"

"…"

"You know…"

"…"

"You don't know."

"I know exactly what you meant, and I can assure you that I'm much more mature than that. I've been teaching Anna magic."

"If you ever do, I will kill you with my own two hands."

"I wouldn't waste the effort if I were you." And he went upstairs. He could see the girl in his mind, in that frustrated stance that women sometimes took, but he knew that she understood that he would never take advantage of Anna.

Anna, of course, was upstairs cleaning. Was that all she did all day?

"Hi, Kratos. Could you stay outside for a minute? I'm almost done in here, and we can just leave the door open."

"Is this all you do?"

"Oh, no. I also cook, and practice with my chainsphere, and wash sheets and clothes…"

"That's all?"

"Um… And I shop for supplies, and I have a journal that I write in, and I practice magic, and I think about you…–"

She now had a look on her face as though she had just shared a secret that she hadn't meant to tell him.

"Um, just ignore that last one, okay?"

"I planned to. It doesn't matter to me how you feel about me. As long as you want me to teach you magic, I'll keep coming."

"But… I would've thought that would change everything…"

"Whatever happened to not talking about it?"

"Well, I want you to know how I feel. And, now that we're already discussing it, I figure it can't hurt…"

"…"

"Changing the subject… Why did you go to see Yuan today?"

"I had something to discuss with him."

"Oh. What did you want to talk to him about?"

"It's confidential." He couldn't tell her. Not now. It would be too much romance at one time, and she might get carried away with her emotions.

"Ooh, a secret! Can you tell me vaguely what it was about?"

"Martel."

"Oh! Can you channel the Goddess?"

"… I'm afraid that, in her current state, it's impossible to channel her spirit. That's what Chosens are for."

"What is the Journey of the Chosen, anyway?"

"First, the Oracle appears. Then, the Chosen retrieves her Cruxis Crystal from her local temple, meets the angel Remiel, and attains basic angelhood through the attainment of wings. Then, she fights the Guardian of Fire. She loses her sense of taste. She then moves on to the Guardian of Water and loses her ability to sleep. At the Seal of Wind, she loses her sense of touch, at the Seal of Light, she loses her ability to speak, and finally, at the Tower of Salvation, she absorbs Martel's soul into her body."

"That sounds so hard…"

"It's been done plenty of times before."

"That doesn't mean it isn't horrible! Think of how many people die trying to complete the Journey!"

"Approximately two hundred to date."

"Two hundred people… You mean, two hundred people have died just so you'd have a prophet for the Goddess every once in awhile?!"

"No. Remember that, when the Chosen completes the Journey of Regeneration, Sylvarant begins to absorb mana instead of exuding it."

"Um… Kratos?"

"Yeah?"

"What does 'exude' mean?"

Sigh. "It's the opposite of 'to absorb'."

"Oh. Okay!"

"Now, don't you have something you're supposed to be doing?"

"Not feeling social today?"

"No."

"Okay!"

She bounced down the stairs as she had gone up them, two-at-a-time. There was a loud bang as she got to the bottom of the stairs. Kratos left.

The following morning, Anna came to the clearing.

"What was that yesterday?! You just left!"

"There wasn't any reason for me to stay."

Angry sigh. "Well, what did you want to show me?"

Turquoise wings appeared on Kratos' back. Anna jumped backward.

"Wh-what… Kratos, what are those?!"

"Anna, you should know: any romantic ideas you had are futile. I'm an angel. I'm going to live forever."

"What does that have to do with romance?!"

"One day, you're going to die. You're human, as I was once. Humans die."

"Yeah! So?"

"If we were to be in love, and you were to die…"

"…Then I would want you to remember me for who I was!"

sigh. "Come with me."

They entered the Tower of Salvation. Anna screamed when she saw the corpses of the Chosens, but Kratos whacked her so she shut up. They went to see Yuan.

"Yuan, this is Anna. Anna, Yuan."

"Kratos, why did you bring her to the Tower of Salvation?!"

"I want her to see the book."

"No. That would turn over her entire world!"

"I want her to know."

"Kratos, I don't care how much you say you love her, you –"

"WHAT?! KRATOS, HOW COULD YOU ACT LIKE YOU DON'T HAVE ANY FEELINGS FOR ME?! YOU LIAR!!!!!"

And she attacked him. Not wanting to hurt her, he tried to fend her off with his sheathed sword. However, she was fighting with her nails, so eventually Yuan pulled her off of him.

"Kratos, how could you?! You made me think you didn't care about me!"

"No, I simply said that it wouldn't work."

"…And thusly implying that you didn't have feelings for me."

"…"

"Let's just get off the subject. What's this book that you want me to see?"

"It's nothing."

"Apparently, it's something because if you have to go to all the trouble to hide it from me then it must be important!"

Yuan stood up (he had sat back down at his desk) violently and stomped out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

A few seconds passed before Anna asked, "Kratos, what are you trying to hide from me? Is it something about being an angel?"

"Yuan doesn't like his angelhood, no. In fact, none of the Seraphim do except for one. But I can't tell you his name. It's a secret."

"Yes, but why is it a secret? I want you to be able to trust me!"

"This is the only world you've ever known. You've never seen war, you've never seen a thriving Sylvarant… you know almost nothing about Cruxis."

"Well, then I want to learn! Even if it's painful, I want to know all I can!"

"No."

"Why not? A couple minutes ago, you were ready to let me see!"

"Because Yuan has full custody of the Book."

"What is this book? Why is it Yuan's? Why won't you tell me anything, Kratos?"

"It is a journal by a woman who he loves. You might recognize her name. You probably will, actually. And the names of her companions. Yuan and I are in it, actually. And her brother. You'll know his name. It's a very special book, though. It's the only documentation of the ending of the Great Kharlan War."

"So, it's some kind of war memorial?"

"No, it's a journal. I think you'll like the main character."

Yuan came back. Kratos could tell he was mad, but he was gentle as he pulled open a drawer of his desk and took out the book. He placed it softly on the table.

"I've decided. Anna, Kratos is the most level-headed and logical of us all, even after two thousand years. If he thinks you should see the book, then I guess you should."

"Thank you. Now there's only one problem."

"What?"

"I can't read."

Both men looked startled. "Is that really the current state of Sylvarant, that some people don't even have a basic education?!"

"I know what I need to know."

There was a pause. Then Yuan reached for the small, leather-bound volume, its pages yellowed from age.

"I'll read it to her."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes. She was my fiancée."

"Okay."

Anna's voice cut into their conversation. "How long will this take? I need to be back in about an hour."

"Well, we can at least tell you the story. Two thousand years ago, Sylvarant was only half of a world. This land mass and the one with the Triet Desert in it were considered to be major and minor continents. The other half of the world consisted of three continents and a rather large island. It was called Tethe'alla."

"So… That half split off and became the moon?"

"No. This book explains how the two continents became separate worlds. It is the beginning of the Trial of the Chosen and the end of wars that can last for more than a few years. The Great Kharlan War was between the two continents. However, it was only between the humans of the two continents. Due to extremely high levels of mana, which we'd gotten from the Great Tree, we had all sorts of magitechnology and transportation. The way the world was then, it was like a civil war. Families would live on various parts of the two continents and they'd be turned against each other. By the time it ended, no one knew the causes had been forgotten and the war was running entirely on hate."

"That's horrible!"

"I know. Hate is the worst thing to have a war over, too, because it's an emotion, not a goal. If there were a dictator or an idea we wanted to stop, the war would end after it was over. But it had to be stopped with power because that's the only thing that hate ever answers to."

"So the thousand-year war was fought for nothing?!"

"Basically, yeah. I don't know the official motivation, though. Half-elves weren't allowed in the army, except as mages. I was never a particularly strong mage."

"You mean, you would have killed people?!"

"No. The magic that I do know is for healing. Or, it was back then. I've learned a little bit of attack magic, but not much."

"Oh. I guess it's okay if you wanted to heal people."

"…But I'm a half-elf. After my home was destroyed, I moved to the city in the sky. It's called Exire, and it's a wonderful place where half-elves live together without either humans or elves. But, then it was bombed… Well, it's covered in the Book."

"Is that everything?"

"Yeah. I think so. So, do you want to start the story today or tomorrow?"

"Today."

"Are you sure you want her to hear it, Kratos?"

"Positive."

"Very well, then."

He opened the book and began to read to Anna. He made his voice high for Martel's, annoying for Mithos, and normal for his own. He had very good expression in his reading, and Anna found it hard to remember that it wasn't just a story.

Then he stopped.

"I'm sorry. I've kept you here for too long. You were supposed to be back by now."

As much as she hated to admit it, he was right. Kratos led her to the bottom of the tower and they rode Noishe, his dog, to Hima.

Kratos had called Noishe some weird name and category that Anna couldn't remember, so she just called him a dog.

The next day, though, Anna went back to the Tower of Salvation. The angels were ready to kill her, but Kratos came and told them to leave her alone. He also told them to tell him immediately when she came. If he wasn't there, he said, then they should tell Lord Yuan.

"Now, Anna, do you want to go see Yuan?"

"Please. I hope it's no trouble…"

"It's not. We don't have much to do right now, since the Chosen hasn't even been born yet."

"Okay. Thank you for doing this for me!"

"Really. It's nothing. I want you to know Martel's story."

He didn't tell her about Martel's fate.

Yuan continued his reading, and they finished the story.

"How could that happen to her?! That isn't right! That isn't just! That isn't what's supposed to happen at the end of a story!"

"Well, it did!" …And Yuan stormed out of the room again. This time, though, Anna ran to the door after him.

"Yuan! Wait! I didn't mean it like that! I'm not mad at you! I had just gotten so attached to Martel that it didn't seem like she could die! …And you have to admit, it does seem sort of like a made-up story. All of you were so kind and brave that it makes me so happy just to know you! So, don't get mad. Please don't get mad. It wasn't your fault at all."

Yuan, who had stood still for Anna's monologue, now turned around. He walked back into the room and shut the door without admitting Anna. However, he had a sort of realization on his face that told Anna that he was in an entirely logical state of mind, so she didn't mind being excluded from the conversation.

Then Kratos came out and let Anna in.

He shut the door.

"Anna, I've had a discussion with Kratos, and I've convinced him to try to have a relationship with you."

"What???"

"Yes."

"Yay! Thank you so much, Yuan! Oh, Kratos! I promise, you won't ever regret having fallen in love with me!" She flung herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. She had to stand on tiptoe.

"I'm beginning to regret my decision."

"Oh. I'm sorry." Anna stepped backward, her hands behind her back.

"Don't worry, Anna. He'll get used to it eventually."

"Really?"

"Yeah. If he could put up with Mithos for two thousand years, he can put up with you."

"Oh. Okay."

"Oh, and don't worry about Mithos; he usually stays in his room."

"Okay. Just so I know, though, what would happen if he found me here?"

"Well, since he hates all humans except Kratos on a matter of principle, I'd suspect you'd be tortured and killed. He hasn't really matured much in the last two thousand years, and he has this system that's always followed. If someone, such as you, upsets that system, he gets mad. So, you should spend as little time in the Tower as you can. The Tower itself is Mithos' property; we can always explain what we do outside of the Tower, but inside, we can't go against the system."

"Where else can I talk to you two?"

"We'll come to Hima. It's been nice seeing you, Anna, but it's getting sort of late. You should probably go home."

"Yeah."

"Take Noishe," Kratos volunteered. "You know the way down?"

"Yeah."

So she went down alone, rode Noishe to Hima, then sent him back to the Tower of Salvation, which had been reduced in the world of Sylvarant to a small brick tower. However, Kratos and Yuan had explained to her that it was in Tethe'alla at that very moment, in the form she had seen when the Oracle had appeared.

As she went to sleep that night, her head was so full of thoughts that she found it hard to become calm enough for sleep. She imagined Kratos there, a trick she had learned from Martel.

In the morning, she had trouble focusing. Her friends noticed, and they asked if she was sick, but she just said that she was thinking. They found that to be strange.

The next morning, Yuan came to Hima. That afternoon, her friends teased her for hanging around with so many men, but she just said no, she only really liked Kratos. They then started discussing, as girls often do, absolutely everything about a relationship they could have, the qualities of both Kratos and Anna, and their own opinions of Kratos. There was much laughing and joking.

Then there was a knock on the door.

Anna answered it. There was a blonde kid standing in the doorway wearing a mostly white outfit. He had blonde hair and big, purple bracelets.

"Does a woman named Anna live here?"

"Um… I'm Anna." The situation looked bad.

"Could I speak to you outside?"

"Ooh, Anna, there's a guy you haven't told us about?"

"Of course I'll talk to you."

So they went to the almost-mesa. Then the boy's pleasant face turned angry.

"Do you know who I am?"

"Are you Mithos?"

"Yes. You're in love with Kratos, aren't you?"

"Mithos, love isn't bad. And you can't stop it!"

"Aren't you afraid of me?"

"Yes. But, I believe that, somewhere under the man who split the worlds in two and formed the Desians and the Ritual of the Chosen, there's still the sweet, innocent little boy from Exire. So, I'm not as afraid as someone else might be." Talking was normal to her. It comforted her in a way that she couldn't quite describe.

"You should be afraid. If you want to be in love with Kratos, you have to answer to me!"

"Have you even talked to him?"

"In my tower, everyone answers to me. You read Martel's diary, too!"

"Oh, Mithos, I'm so sorry!" She hugged him, remembering the sadness and anger that had surged through her when she had heard of Martel's death.

An orange magic circle formed around him. "Eruption!"

Anna screamed, and fell to the ground unconscious when the spell was dead.

"Martel isn't dead. Martel is never dead. Remember that."

Then the fourteen-year-old boy sprouted rainbow wings and flew away.

About ten minutes later, Yuan came to the door at Hima.

"Do any of you know where Anna is?"

"She went up to the top of the mountain with that little boy who came here just a few minutes ago."

He was panicked as he asked, "Do any of you have a life bottle?"

"Um… no. Should we?"

"No time."

He ran the two or three meters to the items seller, who sold him a life bottle. He then ran up the mountain and poured the holy water into Anna's mouth.

"Ow, my head! Yuan, what are you doing here?"

"I'll explain later. Come with me."

He helped her down the mountain, purchased a two apple gels, and gave them to her. Then she felt (mostly) like herself again.

"So, because I'm with Kratos, Mithos did a high-level fire spell on me?!"

"Yes. He's jealous. In a way, me and Kratos are all he has left. We're the only two who understand him at all, anyway, so he feels like we have to belong to him. Because you're in a relationship with Kratos, he feels that you're trying to steal him."

"I would never do anything like that! I just like being with Kratos!"

"Well, Mithos doesn't understand. You know, maybe Kratos was right. Maybe you shouldn't be with him. It will only bring you two pain."

Anna started to cry. "But I can't do that! I can't just stop caring about him! I mean, I know I just met him about a month ago, but he's still really important to me!"

"Anna, don't cry… I just don't want you to risk everything – maybe even your life – for one person."

"Why not? You did!"

"That was different."

"Yeah, you got a date the first day you met her. I had to work at having any kind of a relationship for over a month! Some people have these things from the beginning, but I'm not one of them! I feel like I've been waiting to find Kratos my entire life, like we fit together! Everything feels safe when he's around me."

"I don't want to put you at risk!"

"You're not! I am, and Kratos is. But, you can't make me pretend that I don't love him! I do! It's like you and Martel. You still love her, don't you? You always wear the ring she gave you in Flanoir!"

"Yeah, but –"

"And when I say I want to be with Kratos, that means that I can't ignore this! I would do anything for Kratos! I would even die for him!"

"Be careful what you wish for."

"I'm not afraid of Mithos."

"Well, you should be."

"He can destroy my body. I have no doubt that he can. But, he can't contain my soul!"

There was a pause.

"He can't, can he?"

"Well, remember the discussion about exspheres in Martel's diary?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, you know the Desians have human ranches. And, human ranches make exspheres. I wouldn't put it below Mithos to have you made into an exsphere."

Fear came into her eyes, but it left almost immediately. "I don't care. I'm in love. Even if we're separated, I still think it's better than if we'd never met."

"Tell that to Kratos once Mithos is done with him."

"I won't let him just give up! I love him!"

"Sometimes, love is giving someone up."

"You know, maybe you're right. But then, maybe you're wrong. Either way, I want to see Kratos. Even if we can't have a romantic relationship, he's still taught me so much!"

"Anna, do you see the burns on your skin?"

"Yes."

"Mithos is doing worse to Kratos."

"Why doesn't anyone stop him?"

"We need him, remember? He's made the pacts with all the Summon Spirits. He keeps the worlds linked. Origin wouldn't be able to do that alone."

"So when does Mithos start on his world-without-discrimination?"

"He already has. You can't see it, but the Tower of Salvation is connected to Derris-Kharlan, the comet, and on the Comet is a city called Welgaia. He's used a certain type of Cruxis crystal to make everyone there logical beings. But, you see, being human, or half-elven, or elven means that, in some way, you're illogical. Love is illogical. Feelings are, too. So, these people will talk about normal things. They won't infer. They might wonder a bit, but… basically, he's doing a horrible thing. But, it's a city without discrimination."

"That's horrible! How can he justify that as a good thing? Martel would never have stood for that!"

"I don't think he remembers the same Martel as we do. He hasn't read the Book. He never expressed the desire to. I read it whenever a Chosen regenerates the world. It reminds me that it isn't just happiness, it's also suffering. The reclining world shows me that, too."

"Wait… If Mithos is going to beat up Kratos, you should go to the Tower of Salvation!"

"Yeah. It should be about over by now."

"I'll go with you! I'm really good at healing arts!"

"No! Don't you see? If you go to Kratos, Mithos will just get angrier! It wouldn't be safe!"

"It's my fault he's hurt in the first place!"

"It's not your fault, but for Kratos' sake, you probably shouldn't see him just now."

"Okay."

"Good."

He went outside and purchased a life bottle and a two apple gels (Martel had been right; the combination of a life bottle and 60 hp worked wonderfully together) and flew to the Tower of Salvation. He used the teleport pad to get up to the main area, where he then went to Kratos' office. Kratos wasn't there, so he went to Kratos' room.

Kratos was lying inside, unconscious with cuts, bruises, burns, and everything else imaginable on him. It took a lot to beat up an angel, but unfortunately, Mithos knew a lot of spells.

"Ugh. I feel horrible. What did Mithos do to me?"

"Just about everything, from the looks of it. Here, take this."

After Kratos had the apple gels, many of the burns and things left his skin.

"Have you seen Anna? Is she okay?"

"Yes. She's fine. But, she's still in love with you."

"That stupid, ignorant…"

"Kratos, don't get mad at her for being young. You've been alive – if you can call it that – for two thousand years. Anna's what? In her twenties? She's determined that you two should be together. I think it's cute."

"You wouldn't think so if you had this headache."

"At least talk to her!"

"No. I can't endanger her any more. I love her, Yuan. I don't want her to be hurt."

"You're horrible. She loves you, too, Kratos. She wants to be with you, even after this. If it weren't for her, you'd be doing the exact same thing every day, just like I do. But she's alive. She's brought something new and different to your life! Don't throw it all away."

Yuan knew how to talk to people. He had known, for example, that Anna would never give up her love for Kratos, but he had talked to her to make sure that she knew all of the possibilities. Now, he talked to Kratos to try and convince him to reform his relationship.

"I can't put her in harm's way for my own selfish feelings!"

"Would you rather that you'd never met each other? You need emotion in your life, Kratos! Stop doing this to yourself!"

"Doing what?"

"Being old."

"I am old."

"So's Mithos, but hey, do you see that making any difference?"

"…"

"Just talk to her. I'll go talk to Mithos, and try to calm him down."

"Okay. Don't get yourself hurt, though."

"Do I ever get really hurt?"

"No. I guess not."

"Bye, Kratos."

"See you later."

And Kratos set out to see Anna.

.-..-..-.

"Kratos! Are you okay?"

"Thanks to Yuan, I'm perfectly fine."

"Oh, thank goodness! I thought you'd never talk to me again after that!" She hugged him. "I was so afraid! I didn't even know if you'd be okay!"

"What about you? Are you okay?"

"Yes! Yuan came and healed me! He explained everything to me. Kratos, I don't want this to end! I've never been in love before, and I may never be again! You have all of forever to do everything, but I only have a few years! I may never find someone like you again!"

"Anna, if you got hurt –"

"I don't care if I get hurt! I don't care if I die! I want to be with you, Kratos! It shouldn't be this hard to understand!"

"Listen to me, Anna. I love you. If you're killed, it will be all my fault, and I would never get over it."

"So you want to be inhuman for the rest of your life? Or, do you want to have some time being alive?"

"I want to. It just doesn't happen to be an option."

"Kratos, have you listened to anything I've said?!"

"Yes. But, I also understand that you're very young."

"Maybe that's what you need! Maybe you've been waiting for someone like me all these two thousand years, someone who's willing to drag you out of that attitude and say, 'let's be happy together.'"

"You don't understand."

"Yes, I do! Mithos can kill me, for all I care, and I'll still be happy that I've had a month with you! …And I've learned lots of magic, and I just… I have so many things to be thankful for! But, I want you to be happy, too. If you ever die, I want you to remember the time you spent when you were happy, not the time you spent when you were sad."

"Anna, I can't think that way! Why can't you understand that?" Kratos wrenched himself out of her arms, turned around and walked away a few steps.

"Because that's what keeps me going."

Kratos turned his head.

"If I only think, 'oh, this is life, all there is are the things that are happening right now,' it would be so depressing. But, if I think about the good things, then my life is that much happier. I'm not exactly about what Mithos did, but I think I understand what he did. He's jealous of me, and I can forgive him for jealousy. It's not something he can really control. And he's jealous of me because I have you."

She walked to him and hugged him again.

"Kratos, I love you. I don't care about Mithos or anything like that. Let's just be as happy as we can, together."

"Okay."

.-..-..-.

The next morning, Anna was as bright and cheerful as ever. When Kratos came to Hima, he took one step on the wooden floor, slipped, and fell down. The girls laughed at him. Anna, laughing, ran up in her bare feet to help him up.

"You might want to take off your shoes. It's mopping day! Every two months, we mop up all the built-up crud that collects on the floors. See? We have three buckets, and whoever manages to get the most water off the floor and into the bucket gets the next day off. I'm the champion so far! I've won three times in a row, which is a reward in itself!"

"Yeah, but you won't win a fourth time if you keep talking to him!"

"Hey! That's cheating if I'm talking to a customer!"

"He's not a customer! He's your boyfriend!"

"He is too a customer! Every once-in-awhile, he'll buy a meal or stay the night or something!"

"Yeah, whaddaya wanna bet he just came to hang out?"

"What are you willing to bet?"

"Well, we can't very well bet if he's standing right there!"

Anna turned to Kratos. "You might want to go sit on the stairs. We do the stairs and the second floor differently."

So he did, leaving his shoes outside the door.

Anna worked furiously at the task she had set herself; by the end, she had the most water and she smiled widely at her two friends, who were happy for her because they were her friends. Then they replaced all the tables and chairs and forced Kratos off the stairs.

When they were completely done, they all came and sat around the table with Kratos.

"Hi, Kratos! There's been a lot of drama between you and Anna lately, hasn't there?"

"If she chooses to give you any details, that's her choice."

"But, you're still together, though, right?"

"Unless there's something I haven't heard about."

"Kratos, why can't you ever be gossipy? It really is fun!"

"I got bored of it awhile ago."

"Huh? How old are you?"

"Twenty-eight."

In this way, he managed to avoid their questions for a full five minutes while Anna cracked up next to him.

"So, you really like Anna?"

"As far as I can tell."

"Do you want to be married?"

"That's impossible."

"WHAT?!" And Anna left the table.

"Huh? What do you mean, 'impossible'?"

"It's literally impossible for Anna and me to be married."

"How?!"

"I'm a prominent figure in the Church of Martel. I should probably talk to Anna right now."

And Kratos left the table. He walked calmly across the room to the adjoining room where the three inn girls slept.

"Go away! I thought you loved me!"

"To assume that I don't would be nonsense."

"But you said we couldn't be married!"

"That's because of my rank in the Church. As one of the Four Seraphim, I can never marry."

"But Yuan and Martel were going to!"

"That was when we were rulers. It was long before the Church of Martel."

"That's just a cheap trick that Mithos is playing!"

"I know."

"Kratos… What do we do, if we can never marry? Every little girl dreams of meeting the perfect man and having children. But, if we weren't married… that would be downright scandalous!"

"Actually, we might be able to arrange something… if we're discreet…"

"What?"

"Well, you see, if Mithos saw anything that suggested we were married, he'd be angry. But, I wear gloves. I could wear a ring under my gloves. And Yuan, being a Seraphim like me…"

"…Could marry us!"

"Yes."

"Hooray!"

"Anna."

"What?"

"Don't get carried away. We've known each other for a little over a month."

"In fairytales, people marry who've known each other for a few days."

"This is real, though. We need something to base this on other than short-term attraction."

"I'll wait however long it takes!"

She did wait. She waited for six months. But, being the impatient woman she was, she couldn't wait longer than that.

"Kratos?"

"Yeah?"

"Have you been thinking about marriage recently?"

"Not, really, no."

"Would you marry me?"

"That's usually the question that the man asks."

"Would you ask me to marry you if I wanted you to?"

"I'm pretty sure I would."

She smiled. "Pleeeeeeeeease?"

"Heh… Anna, will you marry me? I wasn't expecting to ask you this, so I don't have a ring, but I know where to get good-quality jewelry."

"Heehee… of course!"

…And she glomped him. Kratos being in the kneeling position, they sort of fell sideways.

Then they started to discuss jewelry.

"What do you want for your ring?"

"I don't know. Something pretty. What do you want?"

"Surprise me."

"Oh, I will!"

Anna ran out of the clearing, across the plain, and into Hima. She asked if she could take a vacation.

"Alright. Where?"

"Well, it isn't really a place. I'm getting married!"

"Oh! Wow! Really?"

"Yeah! So, I need some time off, if that's okay!"

"Of course! Wow, this is exciting! Our sweet little Anna's getting' hitched!"

By now, the swarm had surrounded her.

"I want to go see Dirk. He's this dwarf who lives near Iselia, and he can make really pretty things out of metal and stone!"

"What kind of ring are you going to get him?"

"I was thinking something simple. Like, maybe something with our initials on it. Kratos told me that used to be a popular style, and it sounds really nice to me!"

"Yeah! What metal do you want to get it in?"

"Gold. I actually have a lot of savings. Even the money an inn girl gets builds up over the years!"

"Ooh! Can I help you make your dress?"

"Actually, it's going to be a really small wedding. No one's really invited…"

"What?! So you're, like, eloping?!"

"No. Eloping is like running away without telling anybody. I'm telling all of you, and I'm coming right back and we want to have our party in Iselia and to heck with Hima!"

"What day is it?"

She smiled and held up three fingers.

"Three days?! Can I at least do your hair?"

"Of course! Since I'm not getting a new dress or anything, I have to have nice hair!"

The conversation went on like that for several minutes. It still being the afternoon, Anna went to Iselia, traveling through the forest to see Dirk. She was assaulted by Desians, but they were easily defeated. What annoyed her were the monsters in the forest.

When she got through the forest, she knocked on Dirk's door.

"Hey? Who's there?"

"Um… I'm Anna. I'm from Hima."

Dirk opened the door.

"What do you want?"

"Could you please make me a ring?"

"What kind of a ring?"

"A wedding ring."

"Perhaps you should come inside so that we can discuss this."

"Okay. Thank you." She went inside and sat down at the table.

"Now, what exactly do ye have in mind?"

"A gold ring, not anything too fancy, but with the letters K and A on it."

"Like the rings they made two thousand years ago?"

"Yeah!"

"Alright. About how big should it be?"

"Um… I don't know."

"I'll show you some sizes."

"That would be wonderful, thank you."

She chose the ring size (she figured, if it was too big, they could have it adjusted later) and Dirk actually made the ring right then and there. Then he showed it to her and asked her if it looked right.

"It looks wonderful! Thank you so much, Dirk! How much do I have to pay you?"

"Eh… about five hundred gald."

"Wow! That's really inexpensive!"

"It's not a particularly complex ring."

"Thank you, Dirk! Thank you so much!"

"Any time. Tell yer friends to come to me fer things like this."

"Of course I will!"

And she ran happily away. She got tired about halfway into the forest, though, so then she walked.

.-..-..-.

In Tethe'alla, Kratos was in Meltokio choosing a ring for Anna. It had to be… he didn't know what it had to be. That was the problem.

"Can I help you sir?"

"Yes. I'm looking for a ring for someone who's… well, she's energetic. And optimistic. And… hyperactive."

"Um… what sort of a ring?"

"Um… something small, not too extravagant…"

"Like this?"

"Yes, actually. That's perfect. How much is it?"

"G800."

"Very well." He gave her 800 gald and took the ring. "Thank you."

"Thank you for shopping here sir."

And Kratos exited the store.

The morning of the wedding

"Ugh! Your hair won't stop frizzing!"

"Use the hair stuff I always use! It works!"

"I would, if I could get your hair onto the stupid rollers!"

"Don't put too much on at a time!"

"I'm not! They just hate me!"

When all that was done, and Anna's hair was curled and pinned in a stylish fashion (the entire process took about an hour), one of the other girls started on her makeup.

"So, you want green, right?"

"Yeah."

"Okay. Close your eyes." Anna could feel every stage of the makeup application process and knew each one. "Okay, now here's a thing of gloss."

Anna put on the lipgloss, kissed a towel, and was completely ready.

Meanwhile…

Okay, Kratos. I understand that you can spike your hair out of practice. But how the heck do you get it to lie flat?!"

"Gel it."

"But then it'll look all stringy and wet and weird."

"Do you want me to try?"

"By all means, do. You can't mess it up more than I have."

Kratos brushed his hair, parted it, gelled it, combed the gel in, and it lay flat. Then Yuan put it in a ponytail much like his own.

Then Kratos straightened his shirt and was done.

Ah, the differences between men and women.

The chapter was getting sortuv long, so I decided to end it there. In case you were wondering about the differences: Kratos went to Yuan on the morning of his wedding and said something to the effect of "hey, will you do my hair?" while Anna had been planning with her friends for all three days who was going to do her hair, how it was going to be done, and what was up with her makeup. As to why Dirk was in this chapter: I just like Dirk's character. He's nice. He should have had more character development in the game.

So, now Kratos and Anna are about to get married. I have a problem, though: Kratos and Anna have a kid, which implies that they went through a certain process, and yet Anna seems like Martel from Sacrifice for the World (one of my 2 other ToS fanfics), meaning that she is the most innocent girl out there.

This is a dilemma.

I got a comment after the first chapter came out which basically said, "great story!" so I wrote some stuff and all but forgot about it. Then I got a detailed comment talking about the "innocent romance" and a lot of stuff about the story, and I replied with what I knew of the chapter. THIS IS WHAT I MEAN WHEN I SAY I WANT COMMENTS! CRITISIZE ME, TELL ME WHAT I'M DOING WRONG, AND I'LL APPRECIATE IT MORE THAN IF YOU TELL ME I HAVE A GOOD STORY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Please, if you can't think of anything to say except "good chapter!", then please include some kind of junk that you observed that I probably didn't. Thank you.


	3. Wedded

Meeting Anna

By Magewriter

Chapter 3: Wedded

Disclaimer: Since I'd completely forgotten that I'd even written one by the end of the last chapter, I figure I definitely need to write it now. I don't own anything by Namco studios. Okay, I'm done.

If you're reading this on DeviantART (sheelos-lover. you'll be finding out what Anna looks like soon. I'm making a picture of her on MS Paint. I've got her dress, head, one of her arms, and a lot of the coloring done. Now I just need to do the other arm, feet, and their coloring, then perhaps some patch-up work and checks to make sure I've done the shading right, and it'll be ready to post!

Anna walked into the clearing with her three friends.

Kratos and Yuan walked in from the other side, Yuan holding an old, leather-bound tome. Kratos was wearing his "judgement" outfit, and of course his hair was tame so Anna could tell in a part inside of her that hadn't quite been reached that today was special. Kratos thought that Anna looked odd, with her hair curled like that.

Yuan began reading from the book. Anna recalled, in the back of her mind, those words. She knew them vaguely. It took all of her willpower not to hold even Kratos' arm. She got bored and stopped listening in about the middle of the ceremony, thinking about what her life was going to be like with Kratos. Near the end, she came back into focus.

"Kratos, do you take Anna to be your lawfully, or not so lawfully wedded wife, through sickness and health, 'till death do you part?"

"I do."

"Anna, do you take Kratos to be your not-all-that-lawfully-wedded husband, through sickness and health, 'till death do you part?"

"Of course I do!"

"You may kiss the bride."

…Or rather, Anna kissed him. She sort of flung herself at him and somehow their lips met.

Yuan looked down. When they came out of their embrace, Anna noticed.

"Oh! Yuan! What's wrong? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine."

"You don't look fine. You look sad."

"It's nothing."

"Oh… I get it. It's okay, Yuan. You can be sad. But, sometime tonight, you have to be happy, because that will make Martel happy."

"You have an unusual way of looking at things."

"Can you imagine anyone normal marrying Kratos?"

"Heh. I guess you're right."

The after party was held in Iselia. Anna saw old friends again and there was lots of socializing and… well… human things. Kratos and Yuan sort of stayed near the edge of the partygoers, except when Kratos was dragged into the mass of people, whereupon Yuan laughed at him.

"Okay, Kratos! This next game is ha-ard! Me and all my bridesmaids are going to take off our shoes and you're going to be blindfolded and you have to figure out which one's me!"

He just smiled and went along with it. He figured out which one was Anna easily by tickling each of their feet. Anna had a distinctive and rather loud laugh. He stood up, took of his blindfold, and kissed her.

It was a happy night.

No, I'm not going to spoil it by bringing in Mithos.

That night, Anna was excited. She and Kratos stayed in Iselia since it was getting really late.

The next morning, Anna proposed an idea, but Kratos turned her down, saying that she wasn't ready.

That night however, she did relatively well in convincing him.

.-..-..-.

Anna and Kratos then went house shopping. Anna could work as just about anything, and Kratos had relatively good funding from fighting as a mercenary. There were monsters in Sylvarant, and people would pay large sums to be taken between cities safely. Anna mostly just took care of their house and made things in her spare time. She knit a lot: hats, gloves, mittens socks, even a jacket. She made everything. She got particularly good at spinning, too: she could tell when to spin the spindle, when to feed more wool/cotton/flax/hemp/etc. into the thread, and when her existing thread was getting too long and she had to wind it up onto her spindle shaft.

She also learned never to serve Kratos anything with tomatoes in it because, although he would eat it, he wouldn't enjoy it, and she wanted him to be happy because that made her happy.

One night, two months after they were married, Anna sat down next to Kratos.

"Kratos, I have something to tell you."

"What? The last time I saw you smiling like that was at our wedding reception."

"Do you remember what we did two months ago?"

"You – Anna, are you really…?"

"Yes! Isn't it wonderful?"

"Yes! I… I don't know what to say!"

"Then say nothing. Just be happy for our little baby."

Kratos hugged her then, and they shared a mutual happiness that Kratos wouldn't have thought possible within himself eight months before. In his mind, there were no consequences nagging at him, no negative possibilities, just the realization that he had helped to produce something that was in all ways just as real and alive as Anna.

But, now he had to be even more careful than before.

.-..-..-.

It had been five months since Anna had told Kratos she was pregnant.

It was nine-thirty at night.

"Kratos?"

"What? What's wrong?"

"I feel fat."

"What?"

"You heard me. I feel fat."

"Anna, you're not overweight. You're seven months pregnant." She could hear the gentleness in his voice.

"I know. It's probably some hormonal thing. But it's really degrading."

"Anna, you have our child inside of you. It's healthy to gain weight."

"And I feel sick in the mornings…"

"Anna, it's nothing to be worried about. This is supposed to happen."

"That doesn't make me feel any better."

"Anna, our child will be beautiful. Just you wait and see. But, if you still feel this way in the morning, I'll take you to Tethe'alla and get a doctor to look at you."

"What kind of doctor?"

"He's the best in his field."

"No. I know who I would go to."

"Who?"

"Well, first of all, she's a woman…"

"Oh. Okay. I won't go against you on this matter."

"Thank you, Kratos. You always make me feel better."

"I would hope so."

"Hehe…"

.-..-..-.

In the morning, Anna was violently sick in a way that, to Kratos, seemed completely out-of-character. He heard her as he finished putting on his cape.

"Kratos, I want to see the healer today."

"First, you should drink something. Come to the kitchen with me and I'll get you a glass of water."

"Okay." She knew it would be hard for her to stomach anything more.

After she had downed most of the water, she said, "I can tell it's a boy."

"Really? How so?"

"Well, if you think about little boys, they're always active. They do all sorts of stuff, and sometimes they get themselves beat up in the process; they're just more energetic than girls seem to be."

"Really?"

"Yeah. And this little guy's violent! Sometimes when he kicks me, it hurts!"

"…So you think it's a boy because he kicks you really hard."

"Pretty much, yeah. There isn't really that much else to base it on. I can make a guess."

"Probably a better guess than anyone else."

"I still want to see the healer, though."

"Okay. Do you feel okay now?"

"I probably won't until at least lunchtime."

"Do you feel better?"

"Yeah." She had her arms around her stomach, holding her baby in a way. "Let me get dressed. I can't very well wear my pajamas in public."

She went into their bedroom, shut the door, and came out in a dark blue dress that was so un-fitted that it would fit her perfectly for the rest of her pregnancy.

And they walked to the healer's house in Luin.

"Oh! Come in, come in! I was wondering when you were going to come see me again! How long has it been since we saw each other last?"

"A month."

"Really? Seems like longer. Looks like your little kid's growing."

"Oh, he is!"

"He?"

"Yeah. I think it's a boy. He's kicking me really hard."

"Well, it could be either. There aren't any tests or anything so we can tell..."

"Do you have anything to help morning sickness?"

"No. There was one, once, but then some of the babies had birth defects so we figured it wasn't too good to change pregnancy. Hi, Kratos!"

"Hello."

"So, Anna, why'd you come see me today?"

"I have a self-image problem."

"Why? You look great!"

"I feel really fat, though."

"You wanna know a secret?"

"What?"

"Your supposed to be."

They both started laughing for a reason that Kratos couldn't discern.

"Yeah. It's hard to think that way, though! I mean, I've gotten huge!"

"Well, see, a lot of that's water. Because you know how, normally, all the blood and tissue and stuff would come out of you every month?"

"Yeah."

"Well, see, all that's built up inside of you. _And_ there's a baby inside of you. So, when all that stuff comes out, that'll be a lot of weight, especially if you think about how much water that is."

"Okay."

"Feeling better now?"

"Yeah. Thanks."

"Thank you for coming. It was nice talking to you."

"Great talking to you, too. Bye!"

"Bye!"

After they left the healer's house, Kratos turned to Anna.

"What the heck was that?"

"Well, see, I'm really social. And so's she. So, talking to her like that makes me feel better."

"Oh."

"Were you ever social?"

"No. Not really."

"Not even when you were a kid or a teenager?"

"Not that much."

"Oh. That's too bad. But, see, we're friends. So, she knows how to cheer me up."

"Mmh."

"Yeah. Isn't it exciting?" She held his arm.

"Yeah." He smiled.

This chapter was really short. Especially if you're reading this from because (it's 10:01 AM as I'm writing this) I just uploaded earlier this morning. But if you're reading this on DeviantART, I uploaded last night. was being stupid and wouldn't let me log in, so to get the last chapter onto fanfiction, I had to copy my story from DeviantART onto word, copy and then delete the chapter I had here, save, upload onto fanfiction, then delete that and paste the previously copied document back onto the same Word document.

People reading this on fanfiction had better appreciate that. I actually had to figure that all out because, of course, I can only have one document or picture or whatever on "copy" at a time.

DeviantART readers, you've no doubt noticed that I've finished my picture of Anna. If you're on fanfiction and you missed all the times I talked about DeviantART, my account is sheelos-lover. for reading! Sorry there are so many comments and so little story!


	4. The Happening

Meeting Anna

By Magewriter

Chapter 4: The Happening

Disclaimer: (almost forgot it this time) I don't own anything by Namco Studios.

…So, at this point, I really need to slow down the story. The last chapter was way too fast. It seems that getting mad was effective, and I got a lot of great comments. Thank you, everyone, for the insightful comments! They really helped!

In this chapter, Anna's going to get a baby shower and Kratos is going to be pushed out of the house because the girls are all being social and he isn't. It might get to the point where Anna has Lloyd, it might not. Who knows?

As the chapter title says, a lot happens in this chapter. Be ready for a lot of big stuff.

If you're reading this on fanfiction, you're going to see a line right below this text. If you're on DeviantART, I want you to know that there is, on my Word documents, something separating the comments from the story.

Anna had been feeling better today than she had in recent mornings, and that told her that it was going to be a good day.

Then, there was a knock at the door.

"I'll get it," came a voice from the next room.

"Thanks, Kratos!"

She heard the door opening the door, then she heard a familiar voice say, "Hey, Kratos. Where's Anna?"

"Hello. I didn't expect to see any of you for awhile. She's in the kitchen."

She heard Kratos' footfalls as he was pushed aside and running footsteps heading toward her.

"Anna! Why didn't you tell us? Did you think we wouldn't find out?" It was her friends from Hima.

"I knew you'd find out, so there didn't seem to be any reason to tell you."

"Now, that's just stupid! We've come to do girl stuff before you're a mommy!"

"I am a mommy! Just look at me!"

"You're not anyone's mother until the baby's alive! Don't you want to have a fun time with your girlfriends?"

"Of course I do!"

"We brought food. And hair products, and makeup, and all sorts of skin products! We're going to look like teenagers again!"

"But, when you were a teenager, you had acne –"

"Never mind that! We're going to look great today, and we're going to act like girls for the first time in years!"

"Yay!!!"

They ended up pushing Kratos out of the house (what did I tell you?) because he was just leaning against the corner anyway. Then they did all sorts of stuff to each others' faces. They made masks, did scrubs, lotions, cleansers, etc. until their skin was soft, radiant, and beautiful. Then they did each other's hair, which took a few hours, and makeup, which took another half-hour. Then it was time for presents.

"Oh! Wow! You guys brought presents? You really shouldn't have!"

"You're going to be a mother in a couple months. We figured you'd need all the help you could get."

"Heh. Yeah, I guess so."

"Well, open it! I mean, we didn't go to all the trouble of wrapping it for nothing!"

Anna opened the gift. Inside were baby clothes and other cloth items in an assortment of sizes.

"Oh! Wow! These are adorable! I'm sure they'll look great on him." She had already expressed her idea that the baby was going to be male.

"Yeah. Won't they? We've all been working on them. And see the cute little shoes? Aren't they adorable?"

"Absolutely! Thank you all so much!"

"Really, it's nothing! We just want to help out our friend while she's having her first kid!"

"What, how many do you expect me to have?"

"I dunno. However many you want. Who knows? Maybe after you have this one, you'll never want another."

"Hehe… Yeah. He's just going to be so precious…"

Then Kratos came in.

"Am I still not allowed inside my own house? It's starting to get cold outside." Anna knew that Kratos couldn't feel cold and heat the way that normal humans could, but while he was living in the city, he put on the pretense of being a real human.

"Sure, why not? Come see what we made for Anna!"

He walked into the bedroom, which was where all the women were, and saw the assortment of clothes.

"Fine craftsmanship. Nice job."

"That's all you have to say?!"

"Don't be mean to him," Anna said, "He's just not like us. Who knows what goes through his head."

"Heh. Yeah. Men are soooo weird!"

"Heehee… Ow! Sweetness, don't kick me like that! It hurts!" Whenever she referred to "Sweetness," she meant her baby.

Kratos, who wanted the three women out of his house, took this as a cue. "It's getting late. Maybe you should all go back to Hima."

"Oh! Anna! Do you want to come to Hima for the night? You'll be treated like a queen, we promise!"

"Oh, no, I couldn't. I don't really like traveling right now… Maybe after I've had my baby. Promise you'll all come when he's born, okay?"

"We promise!" Then, because they realized that it was getting late, they started to pack up their stuff, which was strewn all around the bathroom, bedroom, and the house in general. Kratos let them take Noishe home since it wasn't particularly safe for three unarmed women to travel at night.

Then he and Anna went to sleep.

.-..-..-.

Two months later, Anna began to get worried. Her baby hadn't come yet, even though it was past her due date, and she was in a bad mood all morning anyway, so she began to get a little depressed, no matter what Kratos said to her.

Then, two and a half weeks after he was due, her baby decided to come out.

Kratos left to get the healer.

"Okay, Anna! It's okay! Don't worry! You're going to be fine. It might take awhile, but it's going to be okay." The healer continued to talk like that for most of the time that Anna was in labor, with a relatively soft voice and kind words, while Kratos held Anna's hand. It was the only time in their entire relationship that Anna had ever said mean things to him. After about an hour, the baby (it was a boy) was completely outside of Anna. The healer quickly washed it, then Kratos gave her a blanket to wrap it in, one of the things that the girls from Hima had given them. Then it was given to Anna to hold, and she coddled it like no one else in the world could.

"Kratos, look at him. He's so sweet. Do you want to hold him?"

"Of course." Kratos was happy. He was completely satisfied with his life exactly the way it was. Something in the very back of his mind told him that this kind of happiness could only lead to despair, but he was able to completely ignore it.

"Let's name him Lloyd."

"What? You just had him. You don't even know what he's like!"

"I've had him inside of me for over nine months! I know his personality!"

"Well, I need to get to know him. Let's wait a few days. Then we'll name him."

"I know you'll agree with me. He's a Lloyd."

"I know you'll get mad at me if I argue with you. I have no doubt that the name will be fine for his personality, but I don't want to commit to a name before I know my son."

"Okay. Oh! Healer-san, (I know there must be a Japanese word that is one level below "doctor," and this is what Anna would have called the healer) what do we owe you for helping us today?"

"Eh. I'll figure it out later. Whatever you see fit. I know you well enough that I trust you."

"Thank you so much for helping me today!"

"It was nothing. He's soooooooo cute!" Kratos then handed his child back to Anna so that the women could flirt with him. "Hello, luvvy! Aren't you adorable!"

Then the baby started to cry.

"Oh! Anna! I think he's hungry."

"Okay. Um, Kratos, would you turn around for a minute? The whole mothering thing is new to me."

"Of course."

So Anna fed her baby, then the women went into the next room and Anna changed into a loose shirt and a skirt, which worked better for that sort of thing.

If Kratos were a social person, he would have sent Noishe to Hima to tell the women there that Anna had delivered her son and both were perfectly healthy. But Kratos was not a social person and he didn't want women to take over his house for the second time in three months. Plus, he could tell that Anna was tired.

"Oh! Look at you! You're so adorable, yes you are! Yes you are! Aw, look! He's blowing spit bubbles!"

Kratos hoped, from the deepest chamber of his metaphorical heart, that his life would always be this simple, with his wife and their child and their friends.

And for the first time in two thousand years, he felt human.

"Kratos! Have you sent Noishe out?"

"No."

"But I promised my friends I'd tell them when I had my baby!"

"Are you really sure you want all that excitement?"

"You'd be amazed how the mood changes when there's a baby in the room. In two seconds, they'll be in here fawning over him. As long as you stay out of their way, they shouldn't kick you out of the house again."

"Shouldn't?"

"As in, I'll yell at them if they try to."

So, it turned out that Anna forced Kratos to send a message to the Hima women, and when they came into the room they managed to completely ignore Kratos even though he was sitting right next to Anna.

Then Anna said her arm was tired and passed her son to Kratos.

"Oh! Hey! Kratos is here! Hi, Kratos!"

"I've been here this entire time."

"Yeah, but we're all focused on the cute little newborn."

"…"

"Isn't he adorable???"

Kratos smiled. Not an Anna smile that was open and showed every feeling she had, even ones that she wasn't currently processing, but a Kratos-type half-smile that showed agreement and some happiness.

"I swear, Anna! I don't know what you see in him! He doesn't process emotions the way people are supposed to! He produced one heckuva cute kid, though."

"Heh… I don't know, either. It's more just… We get along in a certain way. It's not something I can quite place. Do you know why you love me, Kratos?"

Kratos slung his arm around her shoulder and smiled again, which basically meant that they weren't going to get a word out of him. He got a round of giggles from the Hima women and a bright, happy smile (complete with hug) from Anna.

The women from Hima had to leave within the hour, which made Kratos very happy, then Anna fell asleep with Lloyd in her arms.

Then, reality came crashing back into Kratos' mind.

He thought it a shame that they would have to become travelers within the year. If things got too bad, Kratos might even end up taking Anna to Tethe'alla. There were no Desians in Tethe'alla and they would be able to live relatively peaceful lives if they went to live in a big city like Meltokio or… Well, Meltokio. That was where he'd feel safest.

He was going to wake up Anna to tell her, but somehow, he couldn't bring himself to do it. She looked so… peaceful. And she was holding his son.

And Kratos realized at once the gravity of the situation, the seriousness of being in love.

If Anna were killed because of him, he would never be able to forgive himself.

And he was becoming human.

.-..-..-.

Anna didn't wake up until the morning. She slept like a log, so Kratos had taken care of Lloyd the entire night.

He now knew that the name Lloyd really did work.

"Lloyd! Oh, Kratos, give him to me. I'll bet he's hungry."

"Most likely." He handed Lloyd to Anna, who positioned him under her shirt.

"Yeah, sweetness… Mommy's here. No need to worry, luvvy…"

Kratos realized that Anna would be a wonderful mother. She was sweet, flexible, and yet she had times when she could be threatening.

"Anna, there's something that I think we should talk about."

"What? What's wrong?"

"Well, having a child changes everything."

"I know! We'll have to completely rearrange our lives!"

"…No. It isn't just that. It's also… Well, Anna, you know that, as one of the Four Seraphim, I can't technically be married. We had a ceremony and everything, but you remember the rites Yuan came up with, don't you?"

"Hehe… yeah."

"Well, there's also the issue of Mithos. Mithos is determined. He doesn't know that we're living together. For all he knows, I'm living in the mountains of Tethe'alla herding sheep. If he were to find out, it would be dangerous for all three of us. The only real option is to either move to Meltokio in Tethe'alla or become travelers permanently."

"Tethe'… Tethe'alla?! You mean, leave all my friends behind and go to live in the other world?!"

"Yes."

"I would wander Sylvarant for the rest of my life with you. But I can't leave here! I know people in this world! Tethe'alla is… From what you've told me, it's advanced beyond belief… I wouldn't fit in there!"

"Neither would I. But, we would be safe in Meltokio."

"You don't fit in anywhere, anyway. But, what will we do about Lloyd? He's still an infant!"

"We have approximately a year before Mithos learns of this. When he does, we have to be ready. There will be a raid on Luin and all of the cities by the Desians the day Mithos learns of us. We have to be out of the city by the time they come here."

"How will we know?"

"I'll talk to Yuan. We have access to Tethe'allan magitechnology. He'll tell me and we can be outside the city by the time the Desians come into view."

"What about everyone else?"

"They probably wouldn't believe us. People seldom believe what is correct. Instead, they believe what they want to believe. They'll think we're crazy."

"We should at least give them the opportunity!"

"No. We can't let Mithos find out."

"Where would we go, though?"

"I know where. I can't tell you now, but I can tell you that Yuan runs it and it's entirely safe."

"Then why can't we stay there?"

"I owe Yuan a lot. There's a certain bond between all of the Seraphim."

"Wait… I think I've figured out who you all are. There's you, Mithos, and Yuan… But then who's the fourth?"

"That should be easy to figure out."

"Martel… But Martel's dead!"

"No, not really. Her original body is dead, but her spirit still exists. Didn't I tell you? Mithos preserved her exsphere in a selfish attempt to save his sister. Martel's spirit has taken a semi-physical form inside of the Tower of Salvation."

"Oh… That's… weird."

"Yes, but that's how it is. If you would like to question any of that, you can talk to Yuan."

"But… How do we do that? We have a baby now, Kratos! We can't just pack up and leave everything behind!"

"We may have to. It isn't really an option."

"Oh, Kratos… Could you try to feel like I do? Please? Just for me? I've just met the love of my life, and now I have a child and everything is wonderful, and now you're telling me that we're all in mortal danger! Not just me, but you and Lloyd!" Her voice was beginning to gain that stony edge that meant she was going to be stubborn an a little bit cross.

"I can assure you that, if we play our cards right, Mithos will never catch us. If things become too drastic, you can live in Yuan's Tethe'allan base and I'll tell Mithos that you're dead. If he asks me about Lloyd, I'll tell him that I gave him to a family in Palmacosta or somewhere. We'll still be able to see each other sometimes and Mithos' suspicions will end."

"But I don't want that! Can't you see? I want to live out my days in my own house, with my friends nearby, with you and Lloyd and everyone who's made my life so wonderful! And I want to stay in the Church of Martel because now I believe even more in Martel's love that I did before Yuan read me the book! But most of all, I want to see my son grow up in a peaceful house where he can be a little kid and won't have to run away his whole life!"

"Anna, we may not be able to afford that."

"Why not? Why didn't you tell me this before?"

"Anna… You have to understand. I'm very confused right now. I'm beginning to feel things that… Well, I haven't felt these things in two thousand years… I think. I might sound like I know what's going to happen, but… I don't, Anna. I have no idea what's going to happen to us. I've been so closed off from the rest of the world for so long… and now the emotions are all coming back to me…"

"Kratos… I'm so sorry. I didn't realize… Now that I think about it, I guess you have. I've seen you smiling and worrying the same way I would. And I'm willing to help you get through this. But, Kratos, Lloyd is my son. He means the world to me. And, I think that you feel the same way. So, don't get sad or angry or confused… Be grateful for the time that we have together, living a normal life. And if anything happens and Mithos finds out about us, we can deal with that when it happens. Part of being human is not thinking everything out. You never know when something is going to come into your life and change everything. So, don't think a year ahead if it's just going to make you more confused; try to think about now. We have a beautiful house in Luin, a steady income, a beautiful child, and we have each other."

"Anna, I know that you're trying to cheer me up. It isn't going to work. Whatever you say… Whatever you do… I'm not human. I can never be human. I'm an Angel of Cruxis; nothing can change that."

"…But you were human once. And it's happening again. It may sound selfish, but I think I did it. You started to be human again when you realized you were in love with me. And, I'm sure that in your mind, love is a weakness. But, if you act human, it isn't. Mortality means that you have to live in the moment or drown in what you think the future will be like. So start living now, Kratos. Don't live in the future. Give everything up into a single moment and just let things happen."

He stood up. "You don't understand. You can never understand. You're too human." And he walked into the next room.

There was a line above this part, too, in case you're reading this on DeviantART.

So, now we come to the ultimate conflict: mortality versus immortality. Kratos' lack of emotion, I think, comes not only from having lived for two thousand years, but also from being able to see things that are happening in the present from the point of view of the future. For example, if right now he's in love, he only sees how much he's going to lose later. But Anna is living so sincerely in the present that she can't see beyond what's happening now. So, it's basically the two extremes.

Some people might think of that last part as an argument. But I don't. Neither party is mad, they're just trying to make the other understand their perspective. When Kratos goes into the other room, he isn't doing it because he's angry, and although he may sound cold, I think he's frustrated with himself for being so weak. It's like, he's been strong before, he ought to be now. But, it's different now, because he's in love. Love is one of the strongest emotions, and no one quite knows if it's positive or negative because, although it feels positive, it makes the bearer more open to sadness.

This is all starting to sound really philosophical, so I want my readers to know: I don't plan this. This is the stuff that I type out spontaneously with only a general idea of where it's going.

Wow, this is a lot of comments.


	5. Consolation

Chapter 5: Consolation

Disclaimer: I don't own anything by Namco.

…Well, I said that I didn't consider the conversation from Chapter 4 to be an argument. However, that particular type of conversation does need consolation of a type. Right now, Kratos and Anna are both sad because Kratos doesn't know what's going on with his mind and Anna thinks Kratos should have told her the consequences before they did anything.

At this point, I think I've accomplished something that perhaps no one's noticed: neither the women from Hima (there are two, but there could be three) nor the healer in Luin has a name, and yet both parties have had sufficient character development. This talent comes from having absolutely no skill in remembering peoples' names. If you possess that talent, you would be amazed at the number of conversations you can have without knowing someone's name. If you're like me and you can't remember someone's name five minutes after you've met them, then you know already.

Fehize, TheLonelyPixie, Baby Kat Snophlake, and Shippounsangouffe for all the great comments!

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Anna hugged Lloyd for a minute simply because she needed to hold something; then she looked into his wide, innocent brown eyes and knew that she had to talk to Kratos.

So, she lay Lloyd down on the bed and walked into the main room of their house.

"Anna… I don't want to talk right now. I have no idea what to do…"

"That's why you need to talk! You've spent two thousand years on your own, and it worked for you. But now, things are different. Now that you have emotions, you need someone there for you! You need to say something about it. Telling someone always helps."

She sat down next to him and he lowered his head even further.

"You don't understand."

"Not at all."

Pause.

"Why are you trying to?"

"I love you, Kratos. I would do anything for you. So, I want you to be happy. And you can only be happy if you realize what's happening to you."

"Anna, I can't! I've been trying to!"

"Kratos… Calm down, Kratos. How long have you been thinking about this?"

"All this time."

"With who?"

"I talked to Yuan once…"

"I think you need to talk to a mortal."

"You're right… Why is it that whenever it doesn't matter, you can have a hot temper, but the one time I get mad, you're perfectly calm?"

"Exactly."

"Huh?"

"See, you've done just about everything, so your reactions are perfectly predictable. You have everything down to a science. But there's something in my mind that tells me what I can do and what I need to do. You needed me to be calm right then, or we would have gotten into a huge argument and we would think we were too different and split up. We can't yell at each other now. This is too important."

"That still makes no sense."

"Maybe you've made too much sense for too long."

"Huh? What are you saying, Anna?"

"Emotions are nonsense. They affect our actions in weird ways. They're the reason we cry, and fall in love, and do just about everything. But, being mortal is having emotions. They can be so much fun! …And you've made them better. Now, when I'm sad, I feel happy that I'm sad. …But then I feel sorry for you. When was the last time you felt sad, Kratos?"

"When Martel's exsphere was merged with the Great Tree."

"Really? And you haven't been sad since then? Think, Kratos."

"Just… Just now."

"Mm-hm."

"But, I thought that wasn't sad. I thought it was confused and angry."

"'Sad' is a pretty general emotion. Usually, if you're both confused and angry, you're sad. If there's ever anything you want to know about impulses or feelings or anything, I can try to explain them to you. Then you'll know what's going on and we won't have conversations like that one a minute ago."

"No."

Then there was a pause as they both thought for a second.

"You know what? I'll go make us some lunch. Food always makes me feel better."

"Heh. Okay."

"What do you want, Kratos?"

"Don't care."

"C'mon! Pick something!"

"What are you having?"

"Noodles with stuff."

"Okay. I'll have that."

So, she set a pot of broth on to boil and got out her ingredients. They were both relatively content for the next few minutes. Then they heard bawling from the bedroom.

"Oh! Lloyd! It's okay, sweetie, I'm coming!" Kratos could hear her murmuring to her child, then a couple minutes later, she came out holding a happy Lloyd.

"He needed to be changed."

"Mmh."

She went into the kitchen to check her broth, saw it was boiling, and put all the vegetables, meat, and noodles in with one hand.

Then they waited a few minutes for the soup to be done. Anna cuddled Lloyd, Kratos went into their bedroom to get a book, and everything was okay again.

Kratos, in his reading, managed to forget everything that was horrible about his life: Mithos, being on the run, even Anna and Lloyd's future death was of no concern to him. But he found that reading was different than it had been before. This time, when he read his book (he had read this particular one hundreds of times) he found that he wanted the main character to be triumphant.

Was this really what he had lost nearly two thousand years ago?

Now that he could identify emotion and feelings, he didn't ever want to be without them again. He had understood, in his reading, what the character was feeling, but now he felt that he understood it better. When the hero was in mourning for his sister, who died in the beginning of the book, Kratos felt vaguely sad.

He was brought out of his reading by Anna saying, "If you don't come to the table, Kratos, I'm going to dump your soup on your lap. I've been sitting here for about a minute and I want my food."

He closed his book, set it down, and walked to the table. "Thank you, Anna. It smells wonderful." Anna smiled, blushing a bit. She had Lloyd in her left arm and had to eat with her right hand, which looked so awkward that eventually Kratos took him from her so that she could eat in peace, reminding her that he couldn't feel hot or cold. The soup would be the same no matter when he ate it.

"Thank you, Kratos. I guess I'm still really new at this."

"It's expected."

"Hehe… Yeah, I know."

He played with Lloyd (Of course, you can't play too violently with a newborn child, so this consisted mainly of bouncing him up and down) while Anna had her noodles, then Lloyd was hungry so Kratos passed him over, then proceeded to eat his food.

.-..-..-.

It had been a little over a year since Lloyd had been born. He could walk exceedingly well, but he didn't talk. He cried, yelled, and pointed, but he didn't talk.

"I think he's dumb."

"No he isn't, Kratos. He's smart. If you look into his eyes, you can tell he's intelligent. I think he's just content. Maybe he doesn't feel the need to talk."

Lloyd nodded his head and made a sound like "uh."

"See? He talks! …Just, not the way we do."

"Heh. That's –" Anna heard a series of beeps playing a melody and Kratos pulled from his pocket a small metallic box with symbols on it, which he pulled in half (it was hinged on one side) and talked to.

"Yeah? … Yuan? … What?! Really? … Okay. We will. Thanks, Yuan. … Okay. We'll be there. … Yeah, bye."

Then he turned to Anna.

"Mithos knows."

Anna had to think for a few seconds, trying to recall the name, then something clicked in her mind. She ran into the next room and he heard a shelf bang open.

"Only pack necessities. No more than that. Yuan's going to meet us outside of town. I'll pack food."

A minute later, Anna came back into the room.

"I've got my stuff and Lloyds, and some of your things." Then she picked up Lloyd and walked to the door. Kratos followed behind her, then they left and Anna asked Kratos how long it would take.

"Not long." So she started running in the opposite direction. Kratos yelled after her, but she didn't stop.

She soon returned, however. "I've told the healer. She can be out of town in a few minutes. We have to go to Hima."

"The Desians are on a specific mission, not a general one. If they wanted prisoners, they wouldn't all have been sent out. Hima will be safe."

"We can't take chances! They've been my friends for years!"

"Anna, I promise you: Those women will be perfectly safe come morning. But, we might not be. We have to do this as quickly as possible!"

So, without another word, Anna followed him out of town.

Sure enough, Yuan was there with two birdlike contraptions. Both were big enough to hold two people.

"It's about time you got here! Get onto the rheairds! Kratos, can you call on Origin to get them to fly? I've just about used up my mana getting them here."

Kratos did a summoning spell and a man with four arms appeared. Then he turned into an odd, sphere-like ball of what Anna could only assume to be mana and Kratos made Anna sit on one of the bird-things. Then he and Yuan boarded the other and the two began to fly, heading for the Triet Desert. They landed directly outside of a big, round, turquoise-colored building and entered it.

When they entered, Anna screamed.

"Anna, it's okay! These people work for me. They're not Desians."

"Yuan runs an organization called the Renegades, which actively fights Cruxis."

"But… They… They look like…"

"I know. It's so that we won't be discovered. Many years ago, me, Kratos, and a select few others were given human ranches. We could do with them what we willed, but we had a certain quota of exspheres to produce."

"Kratos, you run a human ranch?!"

"Not anymore. A few years ago, I gave mine to a half-elf named Kvar. It's the one recognized as being near Luin; it's just north of Lake Umacy. Yuan's was the one near Iselia. After awhile, we realized that it wasn't worthwhile to produce exspheres."

"So… You stopped enslaving and killing people because it wasn't worthwhile?!"

"I had better things to do with my life. Also, the half-elves who worked for me only respected me out of fear. I could tell they disliked me because I was a human."

"But… Yuan…"

"As a half-elf, I used to have a lot of hatred towards humans and elves. Then, I realized that it was my fault, too, because I hated humans and elves more than they disliked me, so I started to fight it."

"Wow… That was such a strong thing to do!"

"Yeah. But, it made sense. I mean, anger just leads to more anger, so I handed over my ranch. And, I'm glad I did because then I realized what human ranches did and formed the Renegades."

"Wow… Do you do anything like that, Kratos?"

"No. I just fight as a mercenary sometimes."

"Oh…"

All of this time, they had been walking deeper into the turquoise igloo. Now, Yuan opened a door. Inside, there were elegant furnishings including a desk, a chair, a plant, a rug, and wallpaper.

"You two should stay here. I'll act as though I'm looking for you and sending my renegades out to look for Kratos in Triet. They supposedly don't know what you look like, Anna."

"I'm fine with that. They scare me."

"What? Why?"

"Because I've been taught my entire life to be afraid of Desians. So, now, there's something in the back of my mind that tells me to fear them even when I know I'm not supposed to."

"Oh… I'm sorry."

"It's okay. You're doing your best to undermine Cruxis, right?"

"Heh… Yeah."

And Yuan left Kratos and Anna on their own.

There was a pause, but then Kratos was worried about Anna because she didn't usually go that long without speaking.

"Are you okay?"

"No." He hadn't expected to hear that come out of her mouth.

"Why not?"

"Isn't it terrifying? Aren't you scared, Kratos? You and me and Lloyd are stuck in a room together and we have no idea what's going on outside. Yuan could be betraying us right now and we wouldn't know it."

"No. Yuan would never do anything like that. He would have to have us outside of one of his Renegade bases, and then he'd have to admit that he knew where we were and hadn't immediately reported it to Mithos, which would make him a traitor and his punishment would be at least as bad as ours."

"You're really afraid of Mithos, aren't you?"

"Have been for thousands of years. No reason to stop now."

"Mmh."

Lloyd, who had been left to his own devices, had climbed up onto the desk. He was standing on the edge of it, and Anna noticed. "Lloyd!" She ran over to grab him before he fell and reached him just in time. "Thank goodness. It's okay, sweetness…" She continued to croon to him as Kratos walked over to them.

Then she looked up at him, saying, "Well, I can't say I'm not happy that he's strong enough to climb all the way up there, but he's going to hurt himself one of these days if he keeps doing things like this."

"He'll do worse."

"Huh?"

"He's adventurous. He's going to cut himself to ribbons over the course of his childhood. We can only accept it as something he does."

She clutched Lloyd closer. "What?!"

"It's just something little boys do. Don't think anything of it."

"Oh…" Se put Lloyd back on the floor. He immediately headed for the desk and was halfway up it when she pulled him off.

"No!"

Anna gasped. "His first word! Kratos, did you hear it? It was his first word! Great job, Lloyd! That was really good!"

Kratos smiled smugly to himself. "His first word was 'no' because you kept him from climbing up a desk. I'm not really sure that's a good thing."

"Oh, come on. There's a situation for everything. I'm just happy to know he's not mute or anything!"

They heard footsteps. "Ssh." Kratos quietly drew his sword. Anna could hear it ring faintly as she went, with her hand over Lloyd's mouth, to crouch behind the desk. She hadn't thought to bring her chainsphere since she hadn't used it in a year anyway, but if she had, her first thought would have been to protect her son, so she would be behind the desk anyway.

After several minutes and no other suspicious sounds, Kratos relaxed. Anna followed suit and started to play with Lloyd to help calm him down.

After awhile, Yuan came into the room. On hearing the door open, Kratos unsheathed his sword and Anna tensed up, gazing like a deer into a hunter's lamp. Then they realized it was Yuan and calmed down. Kratos replaced his sword. Anna picked up Lloyd and stood up. They both walked closer to the door.

"Mithos isn't coming. If he were, he would have come here immediately."

"Well, he would have had to have gone all the way down those stairs, and climbed over the mountains, and come into the desert. It could definitely take longer than a half-hour!"

Yuan revealed his wings. "Not with wings, he wouldn't. He could have flown down through the center, as Kratos and I do, then flown over the mountain and into the desert. It wouldn't have taken him more than fifteen minutes, and as you've said, it's been over half an hour."

"What should we do then?"

Kratos and Yuan looked at her sadly, waiting for her to realize what had to happen.

"You mean…? …But I can't leave Sylvarant! This is my home! I've lived here all of my life!"

"Anna… Would you rather you give up your home, with your friends all perfectly safe, or your life and those of Lloyd and me?"

She looked down. "I guess… we have to leave. I'm sorry, Yuan. I know we've been a lot of trouble to you…"

"Think nothing of it. Now, if you leave with the rheairds, you can use the transporter at the top of this base to get into Tethe'alla. I would suggest that you stay in either Flanoir or Meltokio. If the Desians find you, go to either the Temple of Darkness, the Temple of Earth, or – if you're in Flanoir – the Temple of Ice. The Desians won't go into them."

"Is there anyone in the other base?"

"Yes. I have a friend, Lord Botta, who helps me run the Renegades."

"Botta? Wasn't he a…"

"Yes. But then, we were, too. He's the one I gave my ranch to, all those years ago."

"I remember that! He was ruthless back then."

Anna realized that she had no idea what the heck the two were talking about.

"Well, he isn't anymore. I'm certain that he would give his life to the cause."

"Ah, to be young again."

Feeling completely excluded, Anna whacked Kratos on the head.

"Ow! What the – Anna?!"

"What the heck are you talking about? Shouldn't we leave now?"

"Heh… You're right. Show us to the rheairds, Yuan."

"Okay."

The rheairds were the odd, birdlike things that Yuan had taken them from Luin on. They rode into the sky, and in the next series of moments, Anna saw snow. Snow all around. A huge field covered in white flakes.

And it suddenly struck her that she might never see her homeland again.

Being the stoic she was, she held Lloyd closer to her – the air was horribly cold – and followed Kratos. They kept going straight, and soon she could see green fields, just like the ones at home.

Then she saw the city, and she knew for certain that she wasn't at home.

They landed just outside the city gates. Kratos talked to the guards outside. Anna could hardly take in the splendor of it all – stone walls, a city with paved streets, even a castle – she had seen it before they had landed. The whole place was so grand, she didn't know how she would ever be able to fit in.

As they walked through the ginormous stone gates, she looked to her right and noticed the only un-grand part of the city. Kratos noticed. "Those are the slums," he said.

"They look like Triet. You know, with the box-type houses?"

"Well, it's nothing like Triet. Those are the people who live in poverty."

"I can't imagine what someone from this world would think if they went to Sylvarant!"

"We think it impoverished."

"Oh, thanks for saying so, Kratos." She noticed that they had been walking up a lot of steps, but as they came up the last flight, Anna couldn't believe her eyes. There was a large area, paved without any cracked or haphazardly-cut stones, and there were marble benches and potted plants and people walking about in clothes made of cloth that was the quality she had never thought she would see in her life.

And suddenly, she felt horribly out-of-place.

A few people came up to him, but the women were the loudest, and therefore the most noticeable.

"Kratos! Is that you? I haven't seen you in over a year! Who's that country girl you've got with you?"

Hearing this from the obviously bratty women made Anna extremely mad, so before Kratos could give a tactful reply, she yelled, "Who are you to call me a 'country girl'? I oughta bash your head in for that!" She didn't say anything too harsh because she was still holding Lloyd and didn't want him to be exposed to overly harsh language.

"My, you're ferocious. Why would you ever want to associate with _her_?"

"Be –"

"I'll have you know we're married!"

"Anna –"

Another woman cut in, this one with a softer voice.

"Oh? Kratos, I thought you said you would never marry."

"Well, I –"

"You all seem annoying. Come on, Kratos, let's leave."

"Anna! Will you listen to me?"

"Sure."

"These people happen to be nobles of Tethe'alla."

"Oh? Like in a story book?"

"Yes, like in a fantasy from your world. And I can understand how they might seem rude to you, since Tethe'allan culture is very different from yours, but please try to be polite to them. They're very important to the social structure of the Tethe'allan Empire."

"Oh. Okay." Then she turned towards the mass of people. "I'm sorry. I come from a very different culture from yours, you see, so what you probably saw as a comment seemed like an insult to me. I'm sorry for getting mad." Then she smiled her most sickly-sweet fake smile and she and Kratos, after a short discussion with a few of the other nobles, went up the stairs and into the castle – Kratos seemed to have a lot of influence in this world, too – and talked to the Chosen of Tethe'alla, a five-and-a-half-year-old boy with adorable red hair. He seemed to have an overwhelming air of suppressed sadness, however. Anna felt sad just looking at him.

When they left and went down the stairs, Anna asked, "That boy… who was he?"

"Zelos, the Chosen of Tethe'alla."

"No, I mean… He seemed so sad…"

"His mother was killed by Desians a couple of years ago. She said then that she hated him. It's the sort of thing that ruins people for life."

"How can you say that so casually?!"

Kratos didn't respond to that verbally; instead he looked at her. In his eyes, she could see death, pain, sadness, and the knowledge that he was going to live with it for the rest of eternity.

She looked down and hugged Lloyd closer.

When they checked into the inn, all was going well. They let Lloyd play in the room until he just about collapsed on the floor. Then they woke him up just long enough to get him tucked into bed.

Then they went to bed themselves, although Anna wasn't awake when Kratos went to sleep. He stayed up reading long after she had dozed off.

In the morning, she had a drink called "coffee" for the first time ever.

If you were expecting her to become completely consumed by it and go hyper and become a caffeine addict, you would be forgetting what I said at the end of the first chapter (heck, even I forgot it) about how she's a lot like me. She's developed her own character and strayed a bit from the path, but that's the easiest way for me to make believable characters: if I were in there place, would those words come out of my mouth? …And, I hate coffee. It's bitter and disgusting.

…So, coming back to the story:

"Eew! Kratos, how can you drink this stuff? It's all bitter!"

"People all over Tethe'alla enjoy it every morning. Sometimes, they add milk, cream, sugar, or chemical additives. I, personally, like it plain. In this state, it's called "black coffee." I like it. It's nice knowing there's something that can affect my body even though I'm immortal."

"Mmh. I think it's yicky."

"No one's forcing you to drink it."

So, she didn't. Kratos ordered something called "hot chocolate" for her instead, which turned out to be a warm, rich, sweet drink. She loved it. However, she wouldn't have called it "chocolaty" because, living in Sylvarant, she had never experienced the joys of chocolate.

But she definitely liked this.

After breakfast, Kratos decided that he should go and battle some monsters – after all, with his offensive skills, the three of them could afford to live in the inn for a long time. Anna, as stated earlier, didn't like killing monsters, but she did understand the concept of random regeneration, which ensured that monsters weren't going to go extinct anytime soon.

So, she took Lloyd back up into their room and played with him for awhile. She cleaned the room (already having a high level of competence at this) and went outside with her son to enjoy the beautiful day and to learn about the city.

She was intrigued by all of the shops in the town, but they made her feel simple. She was content to look, certain that things that fine must be very expensive, until she looked at the price tag on a pair of gloves made out of fabric that seemed to have perfectly even thread and a perfectly even gauge (they were knit). Also, the knitted stitches were so small that Anna could hardly see them – it was like magic! And they were priced at only G50.

This was mind-boggling to her, that a pair of gloves obviously made by highly advanced magitechnology would be priced at only 50 Gald. The shop clerk didn't seem to think that that was unusual, which puzzled her even more. Anna realized then that this world was impossibly far beyond her own in their way of thinking and of doing things. So, she went back to the inn.

When Kratos came back to the city, Anna was there.

"Anna? What's wrong?"

"This whole place is strange! Today I saw these gloves, and the thread was as fine as on your clothes, and the knit stitches were so tiny I could hardly see them, but it was only fifty gald! What's up with that, Kratos?"

"In this world, there are magitechnological machines that can do that. You see this?" He pulled the metal box from his pocket that he had been talking to earlier. He unfolded it. There was glass on it, and it lit up, and Anna jumped back. Then, Kratos started laughing. "It's nothing to be afraid of! It's a cell phone!"

"What… what is it?"

"It's a highly advanced, magitechnological device that transmits messages through the air. They were created in Sylvarant a few Cycles of Regeneration ago. Only Cruxis has been able to sustain them, so they're not available in either world. However, they're extremely useful to me and Yuan."

"Why is it so bright?"

"That's the screen. And these buttons down on the lower panel are numbers. If you tap them, the screen changes to show you what numbers you've pressed. Then, you tap this green button – it looks like a traditional telephone from before cell phones were invented – and you press the red button to end the call."

"Call? Wha…? Kratos, you're not making any sense."

"Talking to someone on a phone – that's generic for either a telephone or one of these devices – is called a 'call.' In the time when these were made, everyone in Sylvarant was literate, so the numbers themselves weren't a problem. It's just a way of making communications easier."

"So… if you punch in a code, then you can talk to Yuan, however far away you are?"

"Right. And, because they run on Volt's mana, we can call each other between the worlds and the call will still go through."

"That's amazing!"

"Mm-hm!"

"…Can you do anything else with it?"

"No." This was a lie, but he could tell that Anna was the type who would be easily taken in by repetitive cell phone games.

"Well, it's still amazing."

"Actually, this is exactly the kind of thing that Mithos is trying to prevent. You know of the Desian Rebellion?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, that was when Mithos ordered the Desians to destroy some of the factories that Sylvarant had in order to keep Sylvarant from advancing any more. He actually transported armies from Tethe'alla to Sylvarant in order to keep it from figuring out that Tethe'alla existed."

"That's horrible!"

"Yup. But, it's true."

"Mmh." Anna looked down.

"What's wrong?"

"I know it sounds silly – I mean, we just got here yesterday – but… I'm starting to feel homesick."

"Why?"

"Well… everything's so different here. I mean, there's this huge monarchy system, and I have no idea where I fit in it, and then there's all this magitechnology… It's so weird, Kratos! I'm seeing things that I could never even conceive of owning back home, and they're being offered to me at discount!"

"It's just the thriving world. It's created its own culture far beyond that which is necessary for survival. You'll get used to it someday."

"But I don't want to! Everything seems so complicated here! It's like, everywhere you turn, there's a way to mess up. I don't like it here, Kratos!"

"We don't have a choice!" She was completely silent, wide-eyed with fear at the angry Kratos. "If we want to survive we have to live here. And, y'know, it isn't up to either of us, now is it? But, it's what we have to do."

Her voice was soft when she spoke to him next, not wanting to ignite any other fuses. "I know it's what we have to do. And, I'm sorry that it's making you so upset. But, you've been here before. And, I'm sure that I will get used to it, or at least understand it, after awhile. I was just frustrated because it's so foreign. And, my entire life, I've had someone there to help me get through these things – sometimes it was my family or my friends in Iselia, sometimes it was the girls from Hima, and sometimes it was you or the healer in Luin. But, I don't know anyone here. And, I think that was why I was so upset. I'm really social, and there was no one there to talk to."

"Nnh."

"Are you having trouble with your feelings again, Kratos?"

"Mmh." He nodded his head a bit, so that even Anna, with all of her perceptive skills, could barely see it. She put her arms around him.

"What's the problem, Kratos?"

"I don't know. That's why it's so frustrating."

"What does it feel like?"

"It's bad. It feels like anger."

"When does it happen?"

"It was yesterday, when we were talking to those women… And, when the one called you a county girl, I wanted to slice her up! I've never had uncontrollable emotions like that before!"

"Heh… I think you were just mad like normal. Heck, I wanted to gut 'er, too. But, that's not the sort of thing you're supposed to do. That's part of having emotions, too, Kratos, remember? I think you just didn't get many new experiences in Luin because it was all the same. We were sort of just living in an unchanging town with our son, who was one of the few things that actually did change."

"No, remember? That's when I got my sense of humor back!"

"Oh, yeah. But, my point is, part of having emotions and stuff is to know when to just shove 'em all into a box and ignore them for a few seconds."

"Oh."

"Yeah. It can be hard sometimes, but I think you'll get used to it."

They sat in silence for a couple seconds, until Lloyd tried to stand up using a small table, knocking it over and nearly shattering the vase on it. Kratos caught the vase, Anna caught the table while at the same time wrapping her other arm around Lloyd. She put him on the bed, which she knew would amuse him for a few minutes at least. Then she got a towel and Kratos started shoving the flowers back in and it was all okay.

Then Kratos picked Lloyd up and started to play with him, and although he was a generally serious person, Anna could tell that he was happy.

This made her overjoyed.

.-..-..-.

They were the most unusual customers the inn had ever had, in that they had been staying there for three months. Anna still wasn't used to magitechnology, but she had simply accepted it as something she would never understand. Lloyd talked a little, too. At night sometimes, Kratos would read to him, and Anna wished that she could, but she was still glad that her son was being educated in a way.

What would it be like, being the only illiterate person in her family?

So, she asked Kratos to teach her to read.

"Kratos, will you teach me to read?"

"What?"

"I want to be able to read."

"It'll be hard; it's easier to learn when you're young."

"I'm willing to learn. Is it hard?"

"Well… not once you're used to it."

"Okay. Then I'm going to learn."

She sat down next to him.

"You won't understand this."

"Why not?"

"Well, the way that our language is written, the combinations of letters – those are the separate symbols – make different sounds. And, there are supposed to be rules to how the letters sound when they're combined, but they're hardly ever followed. A 'C' and an 'H' (he pointed to the letters on the page) can make any of three sounds. It's extremely confusing if you don't already know the words."

"Oh."

"Plus, I would start by teaching you letters. You have to know what they look like before you can expect to read them."

"Okay."

"Heh. Give me until tomorrow."

"Okay!"

She worked on her latest project, a pair of shoes for Lloyd. She had asked Kratos for leather and, his work being to kill monsters, he brought her some. She could have bought some from one of the stores – its entire stock was shoes! – but she wasn't so sure that she trusted magitechnology. So, she made them.

Having been one piece away from being done already, she finished. She laced them and yelled, "I'm done! Lookit, Kratos!" She held up the little shoes for him to see. "Here. Give me Lloyd."

He passed Lloyd up to her and she put the little shoes on his feet. She tied them and felt the ends, and they were perfect.

"Oh, aren't they adorable, Kratos?"

"Yes."

She took them off of him and, it being late, put him to bed.

"There you go, luvvy. There you go. Good night, sweetness." She talked softly and his eyes closed.

And Kratos worried for all three of them

.-..-..-.

Seven months later, (they had been in the inn for ten months) Kratos came home in the middle of the day.

That was unusual, and Anna doubted it was a good thing.

"Kratos, what's wrong?"

"Mithos has located us."

"What?!"

"We need to leave. Now!"

"Okay!" She got all of Lloyd's things together by the time Kratos had packed all of their other belongings (packing up quickly is a skill you never lose) and checked out of the inn. The innmaster was surprised, but he could tell they were in a hurry.

They took their rheairds up to the Renegade base, where they talked to Lord Botta about where they should go. Botta also did something with Kratos' cell phone, which he said would make it easier to hide. Kratos thanked him and they spent the night in the Renegade base.

In the morning, Kratos said they had to go back to Sylvarant. Anna was overjoyed and hugged him, because even though they were fugitives, she understood Sylvarant. She had gotten used to living in Tethe'alla, but she still didn't trust magitechnology.

So, they took their rheairds (which were easily compactable into small, lightweight packages) and began journeying around Sylvarant

I'm sorry this took so long to get up! I discovered this hilarious anime called Ouran High School Club, about these kids who are in a host club. The basis of the host club is, since all the kids at their school are filthy rich, they all have a lot of time. So, the Host Club is a group of guys who throw parties for all the girls. My favorite host is Honi-senpai, because he acts like a cute little kid!

This chapter moves pretty fast (heck, Anna can probably read children's books by now) and it shows how Kratos' emotions have become developed. He still gets frustrated with them, but you can tell that he has kindness now because of how he treats Lloyd.


	6. Fears that Come True

Meeting Anna

By Magewriter

Chapter 6: Fears that Come True

Disclaimer: I don't own anything by Namco, which is confusing because Anna's character and appearance (for appearance, go to sheelos-lover. belong to me, but Anna's name belongs to Namco. I also don't own the names of anyone in the Claidi Journals by Tanith Lee or from Kingdom Hearts by SquareEnix. Don't even ask why I have to write this.

I've noticed that my separation lines haven't showed up on the site. I thought they showed up on Fanfiction, but they don't. So, I'm going to try something new. Let's see if it works!

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The reunion in Hima had more energy in it than Kratos had been exposed to in over a year. There was screaming, jumping, hugging, etc. and, frankly, he found it exhausting to be in the same room with the three women.

So he went onto the front step and read his book. He could hear Anna's friends exclaiming over Lloyd inside, but soon he had managed to concentrate his entire mind on his book.

He came back to consciousness when the girls flooded outside and Anna hugged him. He soon realized that they were talking about Anna's ability to read, so he put his book into her hands, went inside, up the stairs into one of the rooms, shut the door, and locked it.

The girls would have described him as antisocial.

He wasn't really, though. He was adequately social around normal people, but he could never quite get used to the energy that the Hima women exerted daily. It was like every second was a huge celebration.

Come to think of it, that was just how Anna acted.

He found it easier to cope with one person, though. Three of them was just too much.

.-..-..-.

Downstairs, Anna was completely bewildered. She could read children's books, yes, but she definitely couldn't read anything that Kratos would be interested in.

So, she went upstairs and knocked on the door.

"Yeah?"

"Kratos, don't you want your book? You know I can't read this!"

"If you come inside this room, you will be submerged in calm. I won't let all three of you in because it gives me a headache."

"Then… can't you just come to the door for a moment?"

She waited two seconds for an answer. Then the door opened, Kratos snatched the book out of her hands, (it took about half a second since he knew, simply from knowing her, exactly where and how she was holding it) shut the door, and locked. But, his un-sociability was an everyday mystery to her, in fact she thought it a given, so without thinking about it she ran downstairs and socialized further.

About an hour later, Kratos came downstairs.

"Anna, we're leaving." He said it almost casually as he walked past her. She thought he might be joking, but no. He hoisted his pack onto his shoulders, picked up her pack, and offered it to her.

"Wha – Kratos, we just got here!"

"You think this is some sort of pleasure trip? We'll be back soon enough."

"But…"

"Anna, we have to keep moving." He made sure that she was holding her pack securely before lifting Lloyd onto his shoulders.

"Umm… Okay. Bye, everyone. I guess I'll see you all again sometime."

"Bye, Anna!"

"See you again soon!"

So, they walked out of Hima. They trekked southwest, toward the bridge, but when they got there, there was a man fishing.

Then he pulled out a package, much like the ones their rheairds were contained in, and a rather large boat came out of it.

"Hey. Want a ride?" Anna noticed that he was an elf, but that he kept the ends of his ears under a fishing hat.

"Yes. Where are you going?"

"Anywhere. Not Palmacosta, though."

"Um… could you take us to Izoold?"

"Sure! Oh, um, you'd better get on now. I have to leave."

So, they boarded. But, then he started going in the opposite direction that Hima was in. Anna pointed this out to him.

"Yeah. We're taking the long way."

"But there's a bridge in this direction!"

"Yeah, I'm gonna ram it!"

Anna screamed right before they approached it, but they managed to crash it without very much trouble. This was surprising, considering the side of the boat.

"How could you be so reckless?!"

"Eh. I've been through worse."

Then, Kratos came up behind them.

"He's on the run from the Palmacosta Coast Guard."

"Wha – you're an outlaw?!"

"Of a type. Not my fault, though. It's not like I _meant_ to ram their flagship. It was dark!"

"…So, you're running from them because your itty-bitty little boat sank their big huge one."

"Not _sank,_ exactly. More like, it was lopsided until they brought it in for repairs. It's strong, that! Took me three days to hammer my hull back into shape!"

"…So that's why the paint job's so bad."

"Aw… you noticed?"

"Duh. It's blue. The rest of the boat is red."

"Sorry! I'm a little colorblind."

"How about a lot colorblind?" Just then, they heard sirens.

"Bring your boat to the next available dock! Repeat: bring your boat to the next available dock!"

"Well, shall we be getting on to Izoold, then?"

When they got there, they departed and the elf folded his boat up. He collected his fee, then fled the town. The coast guard departed and ran after him, but they were too late. He could have been in Hima or the mountains by then.

Kratos and Anna stayed the night there. In the morning, Kratos said, they would go to Asgard. He also said that they would take different names.

"Who should I be?"

"Hm… It's hard. You've become a 'Kratos' these past two thousand years! I can't imagine you as anyone else!"

"I think you should be Claidis. It's the name of the protagonist in a series of novels."

"Does she have a boyfriend?"

"If anyone in that House of Salvation was familiar with the series, we would have to leave. I'll be… um… I'll be Leon."

"Okay! …And our last name will be…?"

"Sorcem."

"Wha… where'd that come from?"

"I made it up."

"You can't be Leon Sorcem! It sounds stupid! No one would name their kid that!"

"Eh. Some would. It doesn't sound that bad with Claidis, though. Girls think about that stuff, right?"

"Yeah. Like, one of my friends back in Iselia – I knew her when I was about fourteen – she had a really long last name and she always said she wouldn't marry anyone with a long name."

"sigh Okay. What will Lloyd be called? I get to pick that, okay?"

"He can stay Lloyd. It isn't that unusual, is it?"

"I… guess not. Okay. Lloyd stays Lloyd."

"We don't have to worry about him betraying our names, either; I still say, he's stupid."

"Well, he's going to bee if you keep insisting that he is! Do you have any idea how much that can affect things? If he thinks he's stupid, then he won't expect very much of himself, and he will be!"

"Wait… how do you know that?"

"Common knowledge."

"Oh. Heh. They actually did a study on that in Tethe'alla. When students were treated as though they were stupid, they would actually do worse in school."

"Yeah. A lot of how smart you are is psychological. So, stop calling Lloyd dumb!"

"Okay, Anna. You do know that he's too young to process it that way though, right?"

"Yeah, but I don't want you to get used to it. Plus, there are a lot of different kinds of intelligence!"

"There's no such thing as physical intelligence, Anna, but if there were, that would be what he'd have. Usually, if the kid can't talk, they're not really all that smart."

"He talks!"

"He makes sounds every once-in-awhile that can be taken as words if you listen really closely. Trust me, he's going to be better at physical activities than anything else."

"Maybe he's just quiet. Like you!"

"Heh. Could be. He copies you, if you didn't notice. When he gets confused, he tilts his head just like you do."

She tilted her head to the right. "I don't tilt my – oh! I guess I do! Hehe… I never noticed it before! Thanks, Kratos!"

"Heh. No problem."

"Oh! Today, I was looking through that novel that you like, and I managed to read some of it. I wrote down the words that I don't know, but I got through the first paragraph!"

"The first paragraph is twelve and a half lines."

"Well, it's something! …And you have to admit, there are a lot of big words."

So, just to annoy her (he had regained the sense of humor in his cynicism; humorous cynicism is basically just being annoying) he recited the first chapter. Then, he went into the second chapter. Then, Anna got over her amazement and told him to stop.

"Have you memorized the entire thing?!"

"No. I tend to get a little mixed up around chapter seven."

"But… But you… Have you really read it that many times?!"

"Hundreds."

"What's the use, then, if you have the entire thing memorized? Then, wouldn't it just be boring?"

"See, that's the difference between us. You're still young, and your spirit's young. You're easily excitable, but you also get bored easily. For you to read the same book that many times would be unimaginable, whereas I think it's intriguing that a story can be beautiful that many times over. If you want to keep it, though, I do have it all memorized. I can go over it without having the book in front of me. In fact, it might be good for you to start reading advanced material. Maybe I should buy you some intermediate books, though. You'd be more interested on those."

"Um… I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Yeah. You'd like 'young adult' books best. Tomorrow, perhaps we should make a quick trip to Meltokio, or whenever we have the time to do it. Maybe when we get around to Triet… I'll get you some books for your level at some point, okay?"

She had only understood the last sentence of his murmurings, but now she nodded her head. "Okay! Don't feel rushed or anything!"

They managed to stay at the inn for a month. Kratos had gotten Anna some young adult fiction books. She loved them.

One day, Yuan called Kratos on his cell and told him to get Anna out of Asgard because Mithos (with his magical ways) had learned of their location.

Kratos rushed back only to find the entire town pillaged; it was even burning in a couple of places. He went into the inn they had been staying at in the hopes of finding his wife and child.

"Anna? Anna! Lloyd? Where are you two?"

He heard a scream, a child's scream, and managed to find Lloyd.

Lloyd seemed to be suffocating from the smoke, so he grabbed him and ran outside.

"Lloyd, do you know where mommy is?"

Lloyd shook his head.

"Did the scary men take her?" He didn't know if Lloyd knew the proper word for Desians.

Lloyd nodded his head.

This was bad.

.-..-..-.

There was screaming and yelling. Yelling of fire. Anna grabbed Lloyd. She knew that this must be the work of Desians.

After wrapping Lloyd in her shawl, she proceeded to run out of the building, but was stopped by Desians. She was speechless in her fear, but even if she weren't, screaming would have gotten her nowhere. As a last hope, she tossed Lloyd, in her shawl, onto the rug. She prayed that he would survive.

Her wrists were tied behind her back, but she knew that it would be easier for herself not to protest. She was led out of Asgard and shoved onto a cart with a few other human prisoners. They were taken to the Luin Human Ranch and a gem, much like the one that Kratos wore, was put onto her hand.

She didn't have very long then.

.-..-..-.

It had been three weeks. Anna wondered if Kratos had forgotten about her.

Then, one day, Kratos came to the building. She didn't see him personally, but there was talk that a man with red hair had come to talk to Lord Kvar, one of the Five Grand Cardinals and the man who ran the base. It was also rumored that the man was a human.

And the next day, she was sent to Iselia.

The Iselia Ranch was run by Lord Forcystus, another one of the Five Grand Cardinals. The Five Grand Cardinals were the leaders of the Desians.

One day, she saw Noishe. He had a piece of paper around his neck. She pulled it off. It said, "Meet me here tomorrow.

-Kratos"

So, the next day, she did. "Kratos!"

"Don't be so loud. We have to handle this delicately."

"Wha – can't you just get me out of here?"

"All records of prisoners are sent to Mithos."

"Oh…"

"Yeah."

"Then, why did you have me sent here?"

"Dirk is nearby. Maybe he can make a key crest. If not, I can cut the wires and we can escape."

"Oh! Is Lloyd okay?"

"Yeah. I couldn't bring him here because he'd be too noticeable, but I left him with your friends in Hima. He's safe."

"Thank goodness!"

"Don't worry about a thing, Anna. I have it all planned out."

So she didn't. She trusted Kratos, and if he said everything was going to be okay, then it was.

.-..-..-.

Two days later, Kratos came to the fence with Lloyd on his shoulders. He had a horrible expression of regret on his face. As he approached the Human Ranch, he put Lloyd behind a bush so that he wouldn't be seen.

"I have a key crest from Dirk. But, he says that I can't equip it after you've got the exsphere on."

"What?!"

"Yeah. Stand back, Anna, and get ready to run."

She did. He unsheathed his sword and cut down through the wires that kept the human prisoners from the outside world.

"Run, Anna!" She did. She grabbed Lloyd and ran for her life. But, Kratos couldn't hold off all of the Desians and one managed to get close enough to remove her exsphere.

She could feel herself inflating, then, into a monster. She turned a stripey green. She dropped Lloyd. She could feel the chain around her neck, that supported her locket, break away, and her engagement ring snapped.

Kratos dealt a final blow to the Desians he was fighting, then he smote the one that had removed her exsphere.

"Anna! Anna, can you hear me? Anna!"

"Kratos…" She hit him. Not voluntarily, but she smacked him to the side.

"Anna…?"

"Kratos, kill me! It hurts, being like this… Take Lloyd. Give him the key crest, and maybe he'll have something to remember me by… My locket fell, too. I want… you… to… keep… it…" Then she engaged in a fight with him. It didn't last long, which she was glad of, and as her spirit left her body and was channeled into her exsphere, she was happy to be free of her monstrous form. She could hear Kratos yelling, screaming to her that it wasn't fair, and somehow she made the exsphere glow.

"Yeah… Anna, I'll give it to Lloyd! I'll give it to him right now!" He placed the Key Crest on Lloyd's hand, his small, fragile hand, and fitted the small gem of her consciousness into the metal contraption.

He had managed to run nearly to the edge of the cliff when he was again assaulted by Desians. Lloyd was placed on the ground, and he walked off the edge of the cliff. Her will to save him at that point gave her the discovery of something extraordinary: with her own willpower, she could give him blue eagle wings. Lloyd was safe at the bottom of the cliff when she heard Kratos yell, "Lloyd? Lloyd!" His screams would have made her human self cry. They expressed so much grief.

But, she could do nothing. After awhile, Dirk came by on his weekly trip to Iselia. He saw Lloyd on the ground, wearing a key crest and exsphere, and recognized him, but he didn't know where to find Kratos. She was aware of all of Lloyd's adventures, and over the next few years, she could honestly say that she had met the Chosen.

.-..-..-.

Kratos, of course, was not so lucky. He had killed the one he loved by his own sword.

He picked up Lloyd and found Anna's locket lying on the ground next to her broken engagement ring.

Who could do that? Who could make people into monsters, human or otherwise?

He knew what Anna would want him to do, though. He put the Key Crest onto Lloyd's hand. He hated to commit his son to an exsphere this young, but he didn't think it was wrong if it was his mother. He held the jewel next to his chest for a moment and started to cry.

For the first time in two thousand years, Kratos cried.

Then he fitted the exsphere into the Key Crest and picked Lloyd up. He walked to the edge of the downward path toward Iselia, but was stopped by Desians. He put Lloyd on the ground. He chose to cast a spell.

He was mad.

At the end of the fight, he couldn't find Lloyd.

"Lloyd? Lloyd! Lloyd, where are you?!" If it hadn't been for his sense of self-preservation, he would have sat down and cried and done whatever it took to help release the pain. That was what a human would have done. But, after two thousand years, Kratos wasn't a human anymore, and his intelligence had become a greater force than his feelings.

He figured that Lloyd had walked off the cliff. He would be dead, then. Not even an exsphere would be able to save him.

So he continued on to Iselia, but Iselia lacked an inn, so he went all the way South to the House of Salvation. His mood kept any monsters from attacking him.

The next day, he went to the Triet Renegade Base. He spoke to no one and the Renegades, in turn, stayed away from him. He opened the door to Yuan's office.

"Kratos! You – Anna – did she…? I'm so sorry!"

Kratos just glared at him. Yuan understood. He knew the pain. But, he hadn't killed Martel. He had tried to save her. Kratos…

Everything hurt him. He had killed his wife, the only woman he had ever fallen in love with, and it was through his carelessness that his son was dead. He sat against the wall for awhile before Yuan got up and walked across the room.

"Kratos, you've been sitting there for an hour." What did time matter? He had all of eternity. "Don't you even want to talk about it?"

Kratos unsheathed his sword halfway.

"Kra – wha?! Kratos, why are you so… are you sure you don't want to talk about it?"

"I killed her."

"What? Kratos, I can't hear you."

"I killed her! Don't you understand? She was everything to me! Her and Lloyd! And now they're both…"

"Lloyd, too?"

"Yeah."

"Then, tell me what happened. Remember what Martel always said? It helps to talk about it."

"Well… First she was in the Luin ranch, but I had her transferred to Iselia. I got a Key Crest from Dirk, but he said it would be useless since the exsphere was already attached, so I cut through the fence. I held most of the Desians off, but… one of them pulled it off of her…"

"Oh…"

"So then, I had to fight her! I didn't have a choice! At least with Martel, we tried to save her, but… I killed her, Yuan. It was me."

"No. It wasn't. Or at least, it wasn't your fault."

"I'm going to kill that Kvar…"

"No. It wasn't his fault. He was corrupted by humans and elves who told him they didn't accept him. I was angry once, too. It's Mithos' fault. There's actually a new experiment that they're doing, trying to make a perfect exsphere. Chances are, Anna and her group were test subjects for that."

"I just wish that I could help her!"

"Kratos… Believe in Anna. Believe in what she stood for. Defend what she would have thought just. And, if you ever happen across her exsphere again, set her free."

"Yeah… I'll do that. But, give me some time to get my life back together."

"Of course. It took me over a decade. Why should I give you any less?"

Kratos almost smiled.

"Kratos? Do you want me to tell the women in Hima?"

"No. I will. They don't know you at all."

"Okay."

Kratos began to stand up.

"Kratos?"

"I could spend my life sitting there. But, it's my duty to tell them. And, Anna isn't going to come back. As much as I wish she would…" He started to cry again. It was as though everything he had ignored over the years had built up and was coming out.

"Kratos… I can see that I can't change your mind on this. Never mind."

So, Kratos went to Hima. The monsters were still afraid of him.

He knocked on the door.

One of the Hima girls opened it. He had never bothered to memorize their names.

"Kratos? Where's Anna? I thought you said…" He saw the look of shock on her face as she realized what must have happened. "Lloyd, too? Oh, Kratos! I'm so sorry!" She hugged him. Normally, he would have shoved her off, but since nothing else mattered now, why should this?

The two other girls and the innmaster crowded around to hear the news.

"Anna and Lloyd are dead." It was all he could say. If he told them how she had died, they would blame him, and the combined guilt and sadness would have been too much for him.

He turned around and the girl let go of him, falling to her knees. He walked up to the almost-mesa. He needed to think in private. He sat there all night.

And in the morning, he watched the sunrise.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Kratos' section at the end was longer than I thought it would be. I'm surprised I got through all of this in only six chapters, especially since three of them were really short. The thing is, though, that she had already expressed her views on death: it's not all that bad if you remember the good things. But, Kratos can't think that way. He can't think that Anna was wonderful, he can only think that she died by his sword. This is perhaps the greatest contrast between them.

The boater-elf was suggested by my bf, who's on the Washington, DC trip now (a lot of my friends abandoned me for it, but I'm still having fun at home) but here's how it started: one day, I was talking about one time when I tried to go directly from the Izoold area to Hima, but was killed by ogres. He said that that was impossible, so I told him about the bridge. Since then, he's had it in for the bridge. He doesn't like it because he didn't know about it.

Sorry to anyone who didn't like the ending of this chapter, but like my Martel story, the ending was already given to me. I just wrote the background.

EDIT: New-and-improved ending! Much less happy. It was all hopeful and un-depression-y before, but now it's more in character.


End file.
